A Cop Gives Up His Boots

A riding buddy of mine was assigned to a motorcycle police unit and has worked as a bike cop for many years. He also owns a personal motorcycle and we ride together from time to time. He's a really great guy. We have enjoyed many rides together over the years.

He recently was promoted to Detective, and shed his regular uniform and tall patrol boots for a suit and dress shoes (yuck!) He told me that he always considered his patrol boots as part of the uniform. When we rode our motorcycles together, he always wore some kind of short tactical boots.

Due to his promotion and change of uniform, he asked me a while back if I knew if his six pairs of Dehner boots might have some future use for others. Um, yeah! He is not a "bootman" as I claim to be. He really wasn't aware of, nor wanted to know about, the boot fetish community out here. What he doesn't ask, I don't tell. But over the years, he has seen me riding my Harley in all sorts of boots, tall and short, inside and outside of my jeans or leathers. He hasn't said much about my boots, other than to give me a half smile and say sometimes, "new boots?"

He gave me his old boots and asked me to manage their sale on eBay. As my "sellers fee," I could keep one pair for myself. Isn't it fortunate that they're my size! So here is the pair I chose to keep: the newest ones (to him) which he got just a few months ago. They are Dehner dress instep patrol boots. They're stock, meaning that they have a leather foot and Dehcord (plastic) shaft. They have a standard Nitrile rubber sole. They are a 10.5D, which is a little bit larger than my usual boot size. However, they fit me just fine -- especially since they have a 1" wider calf circumference, which accommodates my muscular calves quite well.

The rest of his pairs of boots are sold -- don't come begging, please. Interestingly, they sold to five men in the U.K., who bid more for them than anyone else. I gave the net proceeds of the sale to my riding buddy, who put it to good use to take his wife and children to see his in-laws in California for Christmas.

This was a "win-win" for both of us. I really like these new-to-me-boots, and my riding buddy receiving an unexpected windfall.

Life is short: wear your boots!