Finding love ... by accident

The cop and the paramedic have set a wedding date: May 20, 2005.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Patrolman Bill Burton, injured in a cruiser en route to a burglary-in-progress, thinks the pick-up line he used on the pretty blond paramedic was one of his best.
"I said, 'Hey, I'm gonna be off a few days -- what are you doing?'"
Yeah, it was a classic.
The love story began July 19, 2003.
Burton, who usually works his South Side beat alone, had a partner that afternoon, Patrolman Joe Moran.
Moran drove so Burton could hang his right arm out the passenger door window to even out his tan. The left arm was sufficiently tanned from days of hanging out the cruiser's driver's side window.
The dispatcher sent them to a break-in at Jackson Elementary School, where the first officers on the scene had called for backup.
The story
"We were going lights and siren up Market Street," Burton said, beginning to tell the story.
"Actually, down. You were going south so you were going down Market," Lorie Cook, Burton's sweetheart and Rural/Metro paramedic, teased. "Why does everyone around here say 'up' Market?"
Cook is originally from western Pennsylvania, where, she said, directions make sense.
"Yes, ma'am," Burton said, grinning as he accepted the correction that arrived with a playful punch. "OK, so everyone else going down Market pulled to the right."
Everyone except the New Middletown man in the passing lane about to turn his big Dodge Dakota left into McDonald's.
As Moran pulled around the pickup truck to continue south on Market, the truck slammed into the cruiser's passenger side -- where Burton's right arm was sunning. Shattered glass embedded in Burton's arm and bulletproof vest.
Burton said it could have been worse if not for his catlike reflexes.
(At this point, Cook stifled a laugh, or maybe it was a cough.)
"We were stationed at the Lowellville festival when the [accident] call came in," Cook said. "The cruiser had moderate damage; the truck's was minor."
Cook's ambulance took Burton and Moran to Beeghly Medical Park for treatment. During the ride, Burton picked shards of glass out of his bulletproof vest and sore arm.
The cop and paramedic weren't total strangers -- they had seen each other from time to time when his calls required an ambulance. On those occasions they exchanged shop talk, nothing more.
July 19, 2003, though, was different.
At Beeghly, while Cook was finishing up paperwork on the crash, Burton asked her out, using his "best line."
Cook said if he'd been a baby about his injury she would have just pushed the paperwork at him and said, "Sign here, please."
Late arrival
The first date -- they went to an Applebee's -- didn't exactly start on time.
"He showed up three hours late," Cook said.
Burton was excited about the date, but his martial-arts session ran over and by the time he got home to change, well, he was late getting to her apartment. It worked out OK because Cook had fallen asleep.
At the time, both were dating other people.
"I was enjoying the single life," Burton said.
"I was, too," Cook said, laughing as she explained how she fit the cop into her schedule: "I double booked."
Burton and Cook said they have a lot in common because they often deal with the same people on the streets: criminals and victims of crime. After work, they limit the shop talk to 15-minute vent sessions.
They differ in two areas. He's a Democrat and Cleveland Indians fan. She's a Republican and "huge" New York Yankees fan.
Marriage proposal
When it came time to propose marriage, Burton created an elaborate plan that included Rural/Metro. The idea was to make Cook think she was going on a real emergency call but, at the destination, Burton would be waiting with an engagement ring.
The plan fell apart with a last-minute schedule change that took Burton off patrol and required him to work a different job.
Undaunted, on April 27, he surprised his beloved with a ring in her living room. Then he handed her plane tickets -- destination: New York for a Yankees game.
"She was more excited about the tickets," Burton quipped.
To show his "devotion and love," Burton wore a Yankees T-shirt to the game. Once back home, he burned it.
"She fed my Indians hat to the dog," he explained.
The dog is Shadow, Cook's golden retriever.
Aside from their respective baseball teams, the couple fights about who's the better driver. "Paramedics can get anywhere fast," Cook said, turning to look at her fianc & eacute;.
Burton didn't egg her on with a response, but his eyes said cops can drive fast, too.
Cook said she likes the idea that Rural/Metro ambulances are equipped with police scanners.
"I know where he's at all the time, but he can't keep an eye on me," she said, laughing.
Cruisers are not equipped with radios that monitor Rural/Metro calls.
The engaged couple's wedding plans will include something downtown so that police and paramedics working that day will be able to pop in. "Our co-workers are very important to us," Cook said.
The New Middletown man who caused the crash just may find himself invited to the Burton-Cook wedding, set for May 20, 2005.
"I don't know if he'd come," Burton said. "He got a ticket for the accident."
meade@vindy.com