Brothers assume top sheriff jobs for a day

While Enrique Sanchez, 8, was calm and thoughtful sitting in Sheriff Kenny Furlong's chair, his 7-year-old brother Kaleb VanMeter was bouncing off walls, snapping photos with a disposable camera, and generally telling everyone what-for and how-to.

"I wish I could fire him," Enrique lisped Monday through a smile, rolling his eyes and glancing at Kaleb.

The spiky-haired Enrique won the distinction of Sheriff For the Day during the Kids & Cops event in June. His first command decision was to appoint the equally coifed Kaleb as undersheriff.

For five hours Monday, the dynamic duo dragged Sheriff Furlong around town.

They visited the dispatch center, toured the jail, had lunch at McDonald's, inspected the SWAT team, and watched a real-life foot pursuit.

"That was the best," Kaleb said.

If he could make one new law, it would be that all children would have one ice cream cone a day.

"That's if I was a real undersheriff, though," he said. "But I'm not, I'm just a kid."

He asked Furlong why police like doughnuts, said he wished he could have gone to the shooting range, and pondered the science of physics while wearing a bulletproof vest.

"I was saying to myself, 'How do bullets get through this thing?'" he explained of the experience.

Enrique didn't like to wear the bulletproof vest. "It was heavy," he said.

He proudly showed off the tiny badge he gets to keep and explained the result of the foot pursuit.

"A guy got arrested because he punched a girl. It's not right to punch a girl."

His one new law would be to get people to stop at crosswalks. A neighbor was struck by a car once, and he heard his parents talking about how no one ever stops.

"How would you do that?" Furlong asked his mini-him.

"Now that," Enrique said after some careful consideration, "I haven't thunk of yet."

n Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.