But things don’t always go smoothly for Otto. One day he was playing to a street crowd with a puppet on his arm when a drugged person came up to him and started talking roughly to the puppet.

“Otto was just unable to resist the opportunity. ‘Come on! Come on! You got a problem, tough guy? Come on!’

“‘Oh, yeah? How do you like this?’ The guy pulls a knife.

“Otto thinks he’s playing along. ‘Oh, yeah? What are you going to do with that? Oh, a pussy with a knife! You don’t have the balls to use it!’

The tactical lieutenant said to us, “Our guys need to see him. Tell him to turn all the lights on.”

We tell him, “We need you to do us a favor, Bob.”

The guy turns them all off, and comes back on the line, proud as a peacock, “OK, I turned them off.”

“No Bob. We need them on. Turn all the lights on.”

“Oh, sorry.” He drops the phone and goes through the house turning the lights on. He’s compliant, but confused, like a little kid.

We can’t see because there’s a fence there, but Tactical radios us, “OK, they’re on.”

Now, without consulting anybody, the negotiator says just like this, “No, Bob. I wanted a Bud Lite.” We just all burst out laughing and laughing.

Then he starts laughing.