Main Piece

“They get a call that this guy, who had had some problems before, and he [Nick] had actually dealt with him before, was holding his family hostage in his house [the criminal]. The guy is holding his family at gunpoint, maybe he was holding them for money… I don’t know what it was for. He said he would shoot anyone who came in the house with a gun. My uncle wanted to go in…so he gave somebody his gun and went in. He knew the man and so he went in and convinced him to let the family go.”

Background

Informant

Nationality: American

Location: Willmar, Minnesota

Language: English

The “cop” in the story is the informant’s great uncle Nick, but this and other stories were originally told to the informant by the his great uncle’s brother, the informant’s Grandfather. The informant didn’t fully believe the story until he attended Nick’s funeral. There, the informant heard the story told by other people, and now the informant completely believes the story. The story is one of the most important things that the informant remembers about his late great uncle and how great of a man he was.

Context

The informant’s great uncle was a police officer from the 1950’s to the 1980’s in West Central Minnesota, and the story occurred somewhere in this time period.

Notes

Despite the informant’s great uncle making use of guns his whole life, his greatest act did not require one. I find the story interesting because although it happened not that long ago, the details are already fuzzy and Nick’s act, although heroic, could easily have been greatly exaggerated. It is also possible that the loss of details actually undersells Nick’s act.