They shared stories about their Manteca Police Department careers.

Some were funny, some were scary situations for these local men in blue.

Willie Weatherford, Charlie Halford, Dave Bricker, and Nick Obligacion were the four former police chiefs serving the City of Manteca.

They were special guests at Thursday’s Wine & Words series presented by the Manteca Historical Society.

Current Police Chief Stephen Schluer served as emcee.

“I never knew how much I made,” said Weatherford, who served as police chief from 1987 through 1996. “Money was not an issue – I would’ve have done it for free.”

Added Halford, who was promoted to police chief in 1997 (he served 11 years spearheading the Manteca Police Department): “This was the best career – a great job for the exception of personnel and budget (matters).”

Obligation and Bricker praised the people they worked with and for during their time in the top administrative role.

Bricker was police chief from 2008 through 2011.

Obligacion came to MPD via the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department. He was interested in working the K-9 Unit and had a chance encounter with Weatherford during a K-9 Trial event held in Manteca.

“I didn’t know he was – (Willie) let me talk to him all day,” said Obligacion, who, nine months later, packed up the family from the breezy coastal community to that of the sweltering heat of the Central Valley.

It was a great move for Obligation and his family. He worked K-9 and motorcycle units while serving as police chief from 2012 through 2017.

There were a few close call stories as told by the retired police officers.

Weatherford remembered being shot from the back of his knee during a SWAT training incident. He was fortunate about suffering a fracture to his femur with no damage to the cartilage.

“I came back to work and had a great career,” said Weatherford, who also recalled almost “losing his head” while serving a search warrant at a place on South Airport Way.

He and his fellow officers saw gun shots exiting through a wall of the house that was built in 1800s, adding: “We got out of there very quickly.”

Obligacion, sitting on the stage inside the Manteca Historical Museum directly across from Bricker, said with a smile: “Dave caused me a lot of trouble.”

He shared the story about entering a building on a warrant – issued by Bricker – and noticing an AK-47 assault rifle amid the search.

His team deployed a flashbang – known also as a stun grenade, a non-lethal explosive device used by law enforcement to temporarily disorient the enemy’s senses – from 27 feet out only to have a part of it come back and strike him in the mouth.

“I thought I was shot in the face, and this was going to be it for me,” said Obligacion, who suffered a split lip while loosing a few teeth in the incident.

The one thing he didn’t want to lose upon receiving medical attention was his mustache – that part, by the way, was saved, with stitches going around his facial hairs.

“Some of the stories are OK to tell. Some not OK. People get hurt,” Obligacion said.

Bricker remembered a sexual assault incident that was life imitating art. “It was something that you see on TV – like on Hill Streets Blues,” he said, referring to the hit NBC police series from the early 1980s.

He and two patrol officers entered the house. Bricker came across a dead body in the bedroom, with the woman having been strangled.

The four retired police chiefs are proud of their legacies.

For Schluer, who served as interim police chief before the position became official on October 2023, noted that his legacy continues to be a work in progress.

“Come back to me in four years when I retire,” he said.