Our Someone 2 Know this week has been a reserve deputy with Washoe County Sheriff's Office for 45 years. Teresa Aquila joined the ranks long before it became common to have women on the force - all the while also working as an auto mechanic.
This month she is retiring as a reserve deputy and shares with us a look back at her many experiences, including getting shot - in the line of duty.
"In 1976 the Sheriff's Office actually posted in the newspaper that they were recruiting for reserve deputies."
That year, Aquila was 21 - and she had been waiting for the opportunity since she was six years old.
"I had a police officer come to the school and visit our first-grade class and when I saw him walk in the room, I knew that's what I wanted to be.”
After being accepted to the academy, Aquila began regular patrols for Washoe County Sheriff's Office. "So, I would come in, I would get my vehicle, go through briefing and then hit the street - and take care of the calls that are in the beat, back up other deputies.”
It was while providing back up, in May of 1988, that Teresa got shot by a suspect who was speeding away from deputies. “The suspect vehicle, my radar gun was going off, going crazy - at 120 - and he was coming at me in my lane.”
The chase was dramatized for television on a show called Real Stories of The Highway Patrol.
"And he was driving with his left hand and gun in the right and as he swerved, the gun went down, went through his door, through my door before it went through my knee."
After that, Aquila appeared on 2 News, and the front page of the newspaper. The whole story is in a book Teresa wrote titled "It's called Life Inside the Boys Club".
The “boy's club” - because Aquila's other lifelong career - is auto mechanic. "Those were the two passions I had when I was a little kid; I wanted to be a cop and a mechanic."
Teresa has fixed everything from school busses and sports cars to classic coupes. She even created her own YouTube channel called Teresa's Garage. Plus, Aquila is the host of “Women with Wheelz” car show - part of Hot August Nights.
Teresa says she loved all of it - from fighting crime and connecting with citizens to getting greasy under the hood. Now as she prepares to retire from Washoe County Sheriff's Office after 45 years, she has this advice, especially for girls and women -
"Do what you want to do, don't let others say this is what you should do, this is what you should be, because you won’t be happy."
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In her 45 years with the sheriff's office, Aquila has worked neighborhood watch, victim impact panels, election security, drug takebacks, school visits - and much more. Even more impressive - she has done all of it as a volunteer - reserve deputies do not get paid for their work.
Joining Teresa in retirement this month (Jan. 2022) is another pioneer at the sheriff's office, Sita Singh, who will be signing off after 37 years as a deputy. We'll have her story next week.
