Al - Terry’s Camera Friend and Customer
Photo circa late 1990s or early 2000s. This is my friend Al, one of the regular customers at Terry’s Camera in Long Beach, now closed. I don’t recall with certainty whether his name was short for ‘Albert,’ ‘Alvin,’ or ‘Alan,” we just knew him as ‘Al.’ Al worked for the Long Beach (California) Police Department in their crime scene evidence gathering department. He’s the one who told me years ago that latent fingerprints on non-porous surfaces can be enhanced by subjecting them to a vapor of cyanoacrylate, a.k.a. ‘Super Glue’ or ‘Krazy Glue’.
Al would usually come in near closing time at Terry’s Camera. One of the fun things I remember about being there when Al came into the store is that he and I would play a friendly game of who could get more Peanut M&M candy pieces out of one quarter (25 cent coin) from a freestanding gumball-like machine near the back door. One attempt per day is how we played it. The machine usually yielded 9 or 10 M&M candy pieces but Al holds the all-time record of getting a handful of 14 pieces from one turn! It was a record never again equaled by either of us.
Al was also the proprietor of a business that took fingerprints for official identification purposes and offered photography and notary services, too. I believe that the business still exists in downtown Long Beach because Yelp reviews appear for it, most of them at the 5-star level! And several mention the friendly service and the helpfulness of the proprietor there which describes the Al I knew!
Al - Terry’s Camera Friend and Customer
Photo circa late 1990s or early 2000s. This is my friend Al, one of the regular customers at Terry’s Camera in Long Beach, now closed. I don’t recall with certainty whether his name was short for ‘Albert,’ ‘Alvin,’ or ‘Alan,” we just knew him as ‘Al.’ Al worked for the Long Beach (California) Police Department in their crime scene evidence gathering department. He’s the one who told me years ago that latent fingerprints on non-porous surfaces can be enhanced by subjecting them to a vapor of cyanoacrylate, a.k.a. ‘Super Glue’ or ‘Krazy Glue’.
Al would usually come in near closing time at Terry’s Camera. One of the fun things I remember about being there when Al came into the store is that he and I would play a friendly game of who could get more Peanut M&M candy pieces out of one quarter (25 cent coin) from a freestanding gumball-like machine near the back door. One attempt per day is how we played it. The machine usually yielded 9 or 10 M&M candy pieces but Al holds the all-time record of getting a handful of 14 pieces from one turn! It was a record never again equaled by either of us.
Al was also the proprietor of a business that took fingerprints for official identification purposes and offered photography and notary services, too. I believe that the business still exists in downtown Long Beach because Yelp reviews appear for it, most of them at the 5-star level! And several mention the friendly service and the helpfulness of the proprietor there which describes the Al I knew!