Lou Caputo served his country in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. He did several tours, came home and eventually returned to service, this time with the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office as a reserve deputy.
Eventually, he rose through the ranks to be the No. 2 man just under Sheriff Rick Ramsay.
As Caputo explained, “the sheriff would hire and promote and I would fire and demote.”
Caputo’s time with the sheriff’s office, in a career taking him from Key Largo to Key West, officially comes to an end Friday, Feb. 28 as he enters retirement.
On Feb. 20, fellow deputies, longtime friends of Caputo and his fellow Mangrove Swamp Band members gathered to celebrate his work and dedication to the community with the sheriff’s office. Bagpipes played by Dave Campbell and Doris Chong, who went through the police academy with Caputo several decades ago, filled the air as Caputo walked past his comrades and friends into the station at the Roth Building on Plantation Key.
“It’s a huge loss,” Ramsay told a filled room. “We can’t replace someone like this. People like this are just one in a million.”
Caputo joined the Army in 1969. He was 19 years old when he enlisted. During a 2008 interview with the Keys Weekly, he said he volunteered because he wanted to serve his country — and because it was the John Wayne era, and “the American thing to do.”
Caputo risked his life to play the role of dog handler for the Army. For two tours of duty, with Bruce at his side, Caputo took on the courageous task of tracking and defeating enemy soldiers in Vietnam. Rarely did the duo fail to complete a mission.
“When I got to Vietnam they asked some of us if we wanted to become dog handlers,” Caputo said. “I raised my hand. That’s not what I had trained for, but within two weeks of getting there that was my job.”
For multiple days at a time, and accompanied by only a small band of three or four lightly-armed unit soldiers, Caputo and Bruce would head deep into enemy territory in search of Viet Cong or North Vietnamese troops. Bruce tracked the opposition by ground scent, and Caputo searched for visual signs that the enemy was near. Wherever Bruce went, Caputo and the men followed. Bruce even protected Caputo from a trip wire linked to a nearby C4 explosive.
“I’d be dead if it wasn’t for him,” Caputo says. “He wasn’t even trained to look for explosives. After that, whenever he stopped I knew something was up.”
Upon finishing several tours in Vietnam, Caputo returned home to Key Largo. He had lived there since he was 16, when his mother moved the family from Miami. He married his childhood sweetheart, Anita, had three kids, became a state certified electrical contractor and eventually started his own business.
In 1984, he again volunteered for service – this time as a reserve deputy for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office. Reserve deputies, as Caputo explained, go out on their own time, ride with deputies and help where they can.
A few years later, when his boys were old enough to run the family business on their own, he attended the police academy.
“When Lou first came to the academy, I was kind of happy because I finally ran into somebody who was older than me,” joked Don Reynolds, who trained Caputo during his time at Miami-Dade Police Academy.
Caputo and several others from Monroe County were some of the first to attend the academy in Miami-Dade. Caputo, who drove the group to training in a Chrysler van, said he had a rule that everyone had to be ready to go by 4 a.m.
“One of the things they (police academy trainers) told us was, ‘Just because you’re from Monroe County doesn’t mean you’ll get special treatment because you’re driving an hour-and-a-half. If you’re late three times we’re kicking you out of the academy.’
“You’re running full bore and hitting gridlock in Miami,” Caputo said. “We’d slide into the academy parking lot, sometimes we’re changing in the back. We jump out and put bags on and run up to formation in time to do PTs, because we used to run the stadium steps at the time.”
Doris Chong attended the academy alongside Caputo. Upon graduation, she went on to work for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection while Caputo joined the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.
“Initially it was just Lou and I going up the road,” she said. “Six people wound up signing up for that academy, so we had a full house every night in the van eating on the road.”
With the police academy behind him, Caputo spent a period as bailiff for Judge Regan Ptomey. At that time, bailiffs didn’t have offices; they sat in the chambers with the judges.
“I can tell you what judges do when they’re not in the courtroom,” Caputo joked. “And it isn’t reading journals, it’s not reading the law. It’s none of that.”
Caputo served as sergeant and captain in the Upper Keys. He also spent time in Marathon before heading to Key West in 2010.
“I’ve always had a good team,” Caputo said.
Caputo is known to be a tough cookie when it comes to annual inspections. Every year, deputies tend to their vehicles as Caputo not only ensures they have all their equipment, but their vehicles are squeaky clean.
“The challenge with these inspections is finding dirt. The first year was easy; I didn’t come with Q-tips. The following years, I came with Q-tips,” he said. “The guys love when I come, and the sheriff said I could come back and do the honorary inspections.”
Caputo is also known to be quite the storyteller. Just ask him about the time he brought two German women back to his house after they had a fight with their boyfriends and were kicked out of the car. Or, the time he was on road patrol and responded to a domestic disturbance involving two gentlemen; one accused the other of breaking into a dolphin center and “attempting to have relations.”
Caputo also grabbed the headlines throughout the years for donning a Grinch suit during the holiday season, handing out onions to speeders in school zones.
Caputo said he owes his success to his wife, who supported him all the way.
“I don’t care who you are or where you’re at in law enforcement or anything, without family, love and support, you can’t be successful because you worry too much,” he said.
While his career at the sheriff’s office is complete, Caputo will stay in the public eye as he continues to perform with his fellow musicians in the Mangrove Swamp Band. He’s a key member with Leadership Monroe County.
