Sheriff's department pairs Franks and Beans

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- There have been a lot of great crime-fighting duos.

Joe Friday and Bill Gannon. Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. Starsky and Hutch.

Shelby County's got one, too: Franks and Beans.

With Deputy Mike Franks already on his staff, sheriff's Lt. Mike Jewell couldn't resist when Deputy Gary Beans walked through his door.

He had to put them together.

"I felt they'd go together like ... franks and beans!" Jewell said, howling at the memory. "Something like that comes along once in a lifetime."

"It was providence."

Franks, 41, and Beans, 39, have been paired as crash investigators the last two years. Before that, they were partners in patrol.

And don't think they haven't heard every conceivable joke.

"I grew up with the name, so I've heard them all," says Beans. "The musical fruit, you name it."

"They call us Beenie Weenies," he adds.

He even has his own contribution to the cache of jokes.

"I've got a middle name. Want to know what it is? L-I-M-A."

Beans and Franks's traffic boss, Lt. Wayne Goudy, sent his wife to the grocery store to see which goes first, franks or beans.

"It's beans and franks," he confirms.

The deputies say they use their names to lighten things up, though sometimes when they're handing out tickets, even funny names aren't enough.

Goudy, who says Beans and Franks are excellent officers, says he's got another great duo in the works.

He's got a traffic deputy named Costello.

"Now if I can just get an Abbott, we'll be all set."