I was at the Mantoloking, New Jersey PD yesterday (December 7) for the retirement lunch for Chief Rick Ortley. Rick is bailing out today, after (I think) 35 years on the job. Current sergeant Mark Wright (right in the picture) will be taking over the reins as the new Chief.

Rick is the guy at the left of the picture above.. Don't be fooled because he's not smiling in this shot: he's a hell of a nice guy, and has been a popular figure within and outside of the PD around Mantoloking. He told me his agenda includes lots of road trips - he's going traveling.

Typical cop humor was the order of the day: apparently Rick sort of piled up a police car back in 1988 and someone had the foresight to grab the driver's door off the thing. It's been cleaned up and stripped of all the inside stuff and reappeared as a retirement gift yesterday. Everyone got to sign it and Rick has something a little out of the ordinary to hang in his garage.

We've been with Mantoloking since around 2000, when Bruce Garon was the Chief. Bruce showed up yesterday as well, looking great and as relaxed as only an ex-chief can. Mantoloking always has been a great outfit to us and continues - even though we've never been able to talk them into lending us the four wheelers for a race down the beach. Some strange fear about citizen complaints!

Best of luck, Rick. It's been a pleasure.