Biography - Who Am I?

I received my bachelor's degree in Law Enforcement with a minor in Psychology from Minnesota State University, Mankato, in Mankato Minnesota in December 2007. My original career path was not that of a police officer, but hopefully something in the law enforcement field. Due to the current job market and by meeting the many officers over the years while in the hobby, I decided to go back and finish the required courses to allow me to become a licensed police officer in Minnesota. I recently received a Law Enforcement Certificate from The Center for Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement in St. Paul. My dream job would be a School Resource Officer, probably my only real dream job, working with kids while being a police officer, hopefully one day I will be able to do that. Other than police insignia collecting, my other love is my wife, Meagen, whom I have been with since September 2003. She is a great inspiration to my collecting and is very understanding and encouraging. I could not have the collection I do without her help. To read the story how I proposed, take a look at the Proposal Story I wrote on my homepage.

Many people ask me why I got into the hobby without being a police officer. I have to thank my Uncle for that. He is a retired police sergeant from the Township of Union, NJ. He used to give my brother and me his old uniforms (the ones from the Township of Union in my collection are his old ones), and after having them for many years I decided to look online to see if anyone else has uniforms or what they might be worth. What I found changed my life! I found that people not only collected uniforms, but badges, whistles, pictures, restraints, trading cards, lightbars and everything else police related! I also found the massive hobby of patch collecting and boy I was intrigued. I quickly started buying them on eBay and spent a lot of money really quickly, not a good idea on my part. Luckily I had a good summer job in college to help pay for the hobby in the beginning, but majority of it was built by hard work, persistence and spending numerous hours online looking at many different websites. I made some really great friends who I am glad I met and hope to remain friends with them over the years.

The main reason I made this webpage was to display my collection and hopefully help other collectors just starting out in the hobby or veteran collectors in the hobby looking to trade. I will also use this webpage to help me trade the duplicate patches in my collection. I also do not sell patches from this website as I am not in the hobby to make a quick dollar. I would rather trade for something I do not need than sell patches. I am out to have fun, meet as many people as I can, make friends and help other collectors as many have helped me along the way. If I can be of any help, please email me.

A Few Pictures of Me

Here is a picture of me:

Here is a picture of my wife and me during one of our engagement picture photo shoots: