Former Wichita Falls Police Department officer Alan Bragg was listening to his brother Tommy Bragg's sermon in church while a thief was siphoning gasoline out of his police car which was in the parking lot recently.
A passerby who was driving past First Baptist Church of Lakeside City saw the theft and went inside the church so he could tell Officer Bragg about the crime.
Bragg, who is currently Chief of Police for the Spring Independent School District, accosted the thief as he was attempting to leave with the gasoline.
Looking at the thief's driver's license, Chief Bragg asked if him if he had any warrants he needed to know aobut before Bragg checked his record.
The thief said, "I don't think they've reported this stolen car I've been driving yet."
Chief Bragg shook his head in amazement and called then Archer County Sheriff Ed Daniels, saying, " I've got a thief and an idiot here. You need to come and arrest him."
Chief Bragg, who served as an officer for the Wichita Falls Police Department, for several years, packed his bags when a rare opportunity presented itself in Spring, Texas, outside Houston.
The Spring Independent School District was starting its own police department and needed an experienced law enforcement officer who had the ability to handle such a massive job.
Twenty-five years later, Chief Bragg has built the police department into a 35-man force complete with state of the art computer and surveillance equipment second to none.
Thinking ahead a few years in the future to retirement, Chief Bragg was surprised recently when the much larger Cypress Independent School District approached him about replicating for them what he'd done for Spring.
Cypress is the twenty-fifth largest school district in the United States.
Chief Bragg will start from scratch in January, 2012 and build a new police force in Cypress from the ground up, just as he so successfully did in Spring.
Pastor Tommy Bragg, who serves as pastor of First Baptist Church of Lakeside City, says his older brother Alan has signed a one-year contract with Cypress.
Chief Bragg envisions working six years as he builds the new police department.
Pastor Bragg today said he and his older brother still have a hard time keeping from laughing when they talk about the story of the thief who attempted to steal gasoline from a police car on a church parking lot.
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