HUFFINGTON
08.19.12
TAMPA’S MAVERICK COP
her grandmother’s house and
asked for her. He thought she was
staying there and hoped he could
patch things up. He learned that
she’d killed herself with an overdose of painkillers.
Things disintegrated quickly
after that. The grandmother took
custody of the baby. Swiger got
back into drugs, lost his job, his
car, the apartment. He moved into
a house with some crack addicts
who let him crash on the couch on
the condition that he would serve
as “the muscle.” One night he woke
to the sound of the dog going crazy.
The house was on fire. He crawled
out under a cloud of smoke and
was sick for weeks.
He has trouble explaining what
happened next, but at some point
during this period he broke off
the last of his tenuous social connections and retreated into the
woods. He knew some of the other
men who lived in makeshift camps
around Tampa, and he’d learned
that they could haul in as much
as 50 bucks a day just by standing
Swiger works
as he talks to
Deputy
Donaldson.