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Published on Wednesday, August 4, 2004
in the Palm Beach Post
ROYAL PALM BEACH - For 36 years, Ernie Wessels served the people of Florida, first as a paramedic-firefighter and then as a state trooper. Along the way, he delivered babies, rushed into burning homes, busted armed carjackers and dispensed advice to young officers.
Today, top brass and rank-and-file members of the Florida Highway Patrol, along with family and friends, will crowd the pews at the First Baptist Church in Royal Palm Beach for a farewell salute.
Mr. Wessels had a massive heart attack and collapsed under an oak tree Saturday while mowing the lawn of what was to be his retirement home in Loxahatchee. He was 53.
Mr. Wessels had no history of heart trouble, said Vicki, his wife of 33 years.
"It doesn't matter if you die cutting the grass or in the line of duty. It affects us all the same way," says FHP Lt. Tim Frith, a friend and co-worker who attended visitation Tuesday night. "He was one of the most thorough and comprehensive guys you'd ever meet in your life and deeply passionate about his job. If you wanted the right advice for life, you went to Ernie."
Mr. Wessels began his public safety career as a paramedic-firefighter in Sarasota. "He delivered his first baby in the back of an ambulance while I was pregnant with our first son," Vicki Wessels recalled.
After 11 years, he decided to become a state trooper. "He said he wanted to help people," Vicki Wessels said. "I said, 'You're already helping people.' He said, 'I can help more.' "
The two met and fell in love in high school in their hometown of Sarasota. "I chased him until I caught him," his wife said. "My mom wouldn't let me get married until I finished high school. I graduated on a Thursday and married him on a Saturday. He was a wonderful man."
And tough. Although he never fired his weapon in the line of duty, he pulled it often, especially when arresting armed carjackers, Frith said. He also rescued a neighbor from her machete-wielding husband.
After becoming a trooper, he rose through the ranks quickly, serving as a lieutenant in the FHP's Bureau of Investigations, where he specialized in finding stolen cars, hunting car thieves, busting carjackers and chop shops, and seizing illegally tinted vehicles.
In fact, Mr. Wessels seemed to have the golden touch when it came to nabbing big-ticket vehicles in high-profile cases.
During his tenure, he seized 25 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles in an alleged title fraud case, as well as a $140,000 Bentley owned by Stephen Fagan, the Palm Beach socialite who kidnapped his daughters and told them, falsely, their mother was dead.
But his biggest seizure of all was a fire-engine-red Ferrari. "I was the evidence custodian and it was my job to make sure it was kept in good shape," Frith said. "But Ernie would come by and say, 'Mind if I fire that up for ya?' We loved that car."
Young officers would frequently seek out Mr. Wessels for his wisdom.
"Even the old guys listened to him," said his former partner, Capt. Bradford Pelton. "He was a great cop. He was always there whenever you needed him."
Besides his wife, Mr. Wessels is survived by two sons, Chad, a firefighter at Fort Hood, Texas; and Brian, an ex-Marine and paralegal in Greenville, N.C. He has two grandchildren, Arielle and Colin; and his mother, Emma, lives in Sarasota.