Memories of Lee Fehling

Ex-police partner: We trusted each other

I remember Lee As "Police Officer Lee Fehling." Lee was my partner for four years in the 109 Precinct out of Flushing. Lee always wanted to be a firefighter, though. Part of me (erroneously I'm sure) felt that he stayed in the NYPD as long as he did because we became partners and loved working together. After six years of NYPD, I moved to Phoenix, Ariz., to the police department here, and he went to be a firefighter. There was guilt behind that on my part after 9/11.

Lee and I used to start our morning driving to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a doughnut. He would always get the blueberry doughnut. I thought it was gross, but in true "Lee" fashion, he would eventually convince me to try one. The coffee/blueberry donut combination was delicious.

After he taught me a trick on how to properly hold my coffee so it wouldn't spill while he drove, we would then drive to the park, and listen to the Howard Stern Show while we had our coffee and donut. After, and in between calls, we would drive around downtown Flushing and scare the people that were waiting for the bus to go to work. We would round the corner and either sound our siren (a quick "woot") or our horn and watch them jump. We would laugh our butts off at this one.

We had a great time every day. It was fun going to work. It was fun helping people because we would always end up laughing at one thing or another. For lunch we would go back to the park and he would work on the daily "enigma cryptograms" puzzle on the newspaper. Eventually he would teach me how to do them and they became my favorite type of puzzle. We used to race to see who would finish first. He would win most often.

Lee and I were in a patrol car for 10 hours a day. I trusted him, he trusted me. He would talk very lovingly of his wife, Danielle, and his only daughter (at the time), Kaitlin. He was a family man in every sense of the word. Lee was living the dream.

I will never forget him. He was my only steady partner. I've not had a steady partner since him. No one could compare. He is missed.

Giogi Chiappo, Phoenix, Ariz.