There is no single place an arrest cannot be made. Thinking about it, this must make for some very awkward public situations. And, well…the following stories are just that – awkward. Enjoy.
Interested in reading more stories? Find the original source at the end of the article.
“This happened many years ago in my grandparents small farming country town in Australia, which is why everyone knew about it and told all their relatives about it. It’s that sort of place.
One Sunday the policeman (the town is so small it only has one cop) abruptly got up and walked out of church in the middle of the service. His wife was annoyed at the rudeness. Then at the end of the service the policeman was hanging around the door as people walked out, until a man visiting his elderly parents appeared, upon which he grabbed his elbow and said: ‘Could I please have a word sir?’
It turned out this man was visiting his parents because he was wanted in the U.K for fraud so big he was featured in the new issue of Interpol which had arrived that morning. The policeman had gone home to double check he wasn’t recognizing the wrong guy before he arrested him.”
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“How about meeting the officer who arrested you?
I recently hit the 60 day mark at Alcoholics Anonymous. A few years back, I was picked up for driving under the influence and the cop took no excuses and dropped me in holding. The next morning he showed up with coffee, aspirin, and Powerade.
He took the time to talk to me, and gave me a card for ‘a guy he knew.’
Well last month, when I hit 30 days, the cop showed up.
It turned out before becoming a cop, he had been a booze monkey, although he never got in legal trouble.
My sponsor, the guy he knew, had been HIS sponsor. The officer was coming in to tell us his story of how he changed his life, and how we could too.
The thing is, half of us there had met this cop, and been given the number for the local AA chapter. And he remembered each and every one of us.
And yes it took me 2 years to finally admit I had a problem.”
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“A police officer friend visited a restaurant with his family. They had at least a dozen people seated and dressed nicely. After a round of drinks, they placed their order with the waitress.
The food took a long time to arrive, but just before the food was ready, a dishwasher came out of the kitchen and pulled my cop friend aside. He advised to the officer that the chef had recently received a DUI from this officer…
And he thought the chef was enthusiastically looking forward to the servers bringing out the food, so he can ‘get revenge.’
Needless to say, the officer rounded up his party, paid for the drinks, and they quickly headed elsewhere. To this day, I wonder if the chef simply put his family jewels in the food, or if it was much more dangerous, like poison. We’ll never know.”
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“My dad was a cop for 30 years. 30 years after he arrested this guy as a beat cop (he was at a bar in Florida).
This guy kept looking him up and down. My dad started talking to him and found out they were from the same city in New York. That’s when the guy was like, ‘Holy cow, you’re Officer so-and-so’s dad, you locked me up 30 years ago.’
As you can imagine you never know how it’s going to go from there, if the guy is going to attack or something wild like that. Ultimately the guy thanked him saying it’s what finally got his life on track and bought him a brew.”
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“I’m not a police officer but 3 years or so ago I used to work at a festival bar. Everyone working at the bar had to wear the same costume. About 2 hours in to my shift, the police showed up, looking for one of my colleagues.
The guy they came for noticed, started running and the officers chased him. Approximately 10 minutes later, the guy was back to work. He’d just circled around then came back. He figured they wouldn’t be looking for him back at work, and he was right.”
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“I arrested this guy after his wife came in and claimed he strangled her the night before. I live about 40 minutes away from the town I work for. About three weeks after the arrest, I walked into the Boston Market to get dinner for me and my wife.
“It was at a little league baseball game. I arrested one of the coaches on the opposing team – for what you ask?
Driving under the influence.”
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“My dad was in the gang squad for a bit. He arrested a guy fairly high up in one of the local motorcycle gangs.
A few years later the whole family is at one of those restaurants where they cook in front of you and they seated the guy he arrested at our table. My dad and this guy give each other a tense greeting and we begin our meal.
I turn to the guy (I was 4-years-old) and say, ‘Hi, I’m *my name* my daddy is a police man and he catches bad guys, what do you do?’ and he responds ‘I’m a bad guy and he caught me.’
My dad was just about in tears from laughing so hard. The guy ended up buying my parents a bottle of wine and lobster for the whole table.”
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“I’m not a cop but years ago I got arrested for being under the influence in public and it was not a proud moment. At the cop shop I was honest and told them I was also on some other stuff. The arresting officer spent like an hour lecturing me about substance abuse and how destructive it was, he wasn’t wrong.
Two years later I went to rehab because I got out of control. At my first group therapy session, guess who is sitting in the circle? Bingo, the arresting cop from two years ago. We became good friends and still call each other from time to time.”
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“I arrested this dude for multiple stalking charges against a juvenile student of one of the local high schools. This dude was not okay. The first arrest, I towed his car for 30 days because he parked illegally and had an expired registration (hoping it’d deter him from driving 2 hours to try and talk to this girl).
I then arrested him two weeks later where he told me he took the train. After several other arrests made by me and other officers, guess where I see this dude?
I ordered pizza for my family and he was the delivery boy. Super awesome situation.”
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“When I was an addict I used to get really paranoid out in public, and there was this one cop who would always drive me home, or calm me down. He never arrested me though, and he was always super nice even though I was always out of it.
I’m guessing it’s because I was only ever a danger to myself.
Anyway I got sober, and hadn’t seen him in months. I went on vacation out of town and saw him and his family on vacation too.
We caught up, and he told me how much better I looked now that I was off the stuff. “
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I turn around and the guy I arrested was a few people behind me in line. We made eye contact and we both knew. Our food was more important to both of us. He was getting food about 40 minutes from his house so I guess him and his wife didn’t get back together.”
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“I arrested someone standing at a urinal whilst having a pee in a night club. That was awkward.”
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“My dad was a police officer. When I was around 6 or 7, we were renting a house in a suburb outside of the large city my dad worked for. We had a maintenance guy come out for some repairs to the house.
I was following him around while he worked and was in the back. When my dad comes out of his bedroom…and this guy turned white as a ghost and started stammering. Then my dad tells me to, ‘get out of here’
There is yelling and a few punches thrown by my dad before he takes this guy down. Turns out he had arrested him a few weeks before and the guy saw the picture of us my dad kept with him and went into detail about how he was going hurt my siblings and I while my dad watched…it was apparently purely coincidental but my dad got a restraining order.
We had a very aggressive patrol on our street for the next few weeks…good times.”
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“Not a police officer but work in the child welfare system. I had removed someones two kids because the dad was assaulting his daughter with the mothers knowledge. The father was arrested but the district attorney was deciding if they would also file charges on the mother.
Then, I walked in to Applebees and the mother walked over to take my friend’s and my order. I didnt order anything and left immediately. The mother definitely recognized and her hand was shaking while she was over talking to us. I left because I didnt want to push anything.”
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Points are edited for clarity.