“It was only when I was deep into it that I realized they were preying on immigrants. They were giving them $25 to get an x-ray for these phony insurance claims and some were getting five and six a day. It was bad and I’m proud that we put an end to it. There’s a thrill to taking out bad guys out that’s hard to explain to someone who’s never been a cop.”
One of Sam Panchal’s bosses said, “Getting Sammy on the NYPD was the equivalent of an NBA team getting the first round draft choice. He is that good.”
When Sam made his decision to go into law enforcement, his family was in shock. “It’s not acceptable in the Indian culture,” Sam explained. “You’re supposed to be an engineer, a doctor or a professor. Police officer is not on the list.”
But he always dreamed of being a cop; there was something deep in his soul that drew him to this dangerous and stressful life. For months Sam hid his uniform in the car and changed on the way to the Academy.
Sam learns his first assignment is the midnight shift at the 43rd Precinct in the South Bronx. For his parents, that was the worst district they could have put him in. But for a rookie cop, getting assigned to one of the toughest precincts in the city, was a dream come true. There was crack cocaine, heroin and a lot of shootings.
When Sam was a twenty-three-year-old rookie, he went deep undercover for eight months to get the evidence on a medical insurance fraud scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars and criminals from coast to coast. By the time Sam’s investigation was finished and the last bit of evidence was collected, one hundred people were arrested in eleven states by the FBI, cops with state and local agencies, and agents with Immigration and the ATF.
Following his undercover assignment, Sam goes to work at one of the NYPD’s most exclusive units, TARU, the Technical Assistance Response Unit. He patrols the city installing surveillance equipment, bugging the offices and homes of mobsters, and wiring up cars of suspected criminals for audio and video. We discover exactly why he became so well known for having the unusual combination of skills that make him a brilliant technician and a great investigator.