Nazareth Police Officer Fred Lahovski: Our Very Own Robocop!

A few weeks ago, I emerged from my bunker after sunset to get a new keyboard for my computer. As I barrelled down a Nazareth street, I noticed flashing red and blue lights in my rear view mirror. They were coming for me!

"Bad boy, bad boy, what you gonna' do? What you gonna' do when they come for you?"

As luck would have it, I had a burnt out headlight. The officer gave me ten days to get it fixed instead of citing me. My brother popped in a new one later that week and I stopped by the Nazareth Police Department so they could check his handiwork.

The police officer who inspected my Jeep is Fred Lahovski. He's part of Nazareth's professional new police force, operating under the able supervision of Chief Michael Sinclair. I've seen Fred at both Nazareth block parties, where he makes it a point to say hello to everyone. But beneath this friendly and seemingly casual exterior is a very dedicated professional. He and other Nazareth cops have actually been working cases on their own time, something very unusual these days.

Lahovski is the cop who once stepped in front of a speeding vehicle to save a child from getting run over by a drunk driver during a block party. He's the officer who once tackled a 32-year-old man who sat with a gun pointed to his head for five hours, threatening to shoot himself. This ill man still shot himself, but it was nonfatal.

I've previously tried to get Lahovski to talk to me about the improvements I've seen in Nazareth, but he told me he is just part of a team. His opinion is that the entire Nazareth police department should be commended.

I'm always so busy snarking the bad guys that I never pay attention to the many dedicated public servants out there.

When I showed Lahovski my Jeep, he noticed a number of Stoffa campaign signs in my jeep. I was planting them all over the place at the time.

"Are those Stoffa signs?" he asked.

Uh oh.

I started sweating, worried he might be investigating the culprit who had been taping Stoffa signs to the hoods of their cruisers. But he let me slide. Instead, he frankly admitted he had some troubles of his own as a youth. Two people helped him to turn his life around - Barbara and John Stoffa. In fact, he even worked for them briefly.

On Sunday night, Lahovski was one of two officers who whisked a 9 year-old Nazareth boy to safety as that boy's distraught father fired on state troopers. We know one of these troopers is now dead. But Lahovski and another trooper saved a life that night. The life of a boy the same age as my grandson. The Express Times correctly called him a local hero.

Lahovski is our very own robocop, one of the good guys. They don't get enough credit.