It’s not always bad news when you see those flashing lights in your rearview.
This piece is based on a Quora Question. Link on the last page.
1. I was being transferred from Orlando to Chicago, by the military. Everything I owned was in my car. I stopped overnight in Atlanta (you cant go ANYWHERE in the South without going thru Atlanta, apparently). In the morning, I got in my car and started on the next leg of my journey.
The next thing I knew, I was being pulled over, in heavy interstate traffic.
Son, do you know how fast you were going?
Not a clue, officer; sorry. Was I speeding?
You were doing 72 mph during rush hour traffic, and driving like you were on rails. I followed you for five miles with my lights on, before I hit the sirens. Have you been drinking?
No, sir. Im PCSing (Permanent Change of Station). I havent eaten or drank anything since Atlanta this morning. and I showed him my orders. The officer shook his head.
Do you know where you are, son? I thought about it, realized I really didnt, and shook my head.
Heres what were gonna do. You follow me. Dont deviate from my route. Just stay on my bumper. and he got back into his cruiser and led me, lights flashing, down the next ramp and into a motel parking lot. He walked around to my door and opened it. Keys.
I gave him the keys, and he disappeared into the office of the motel, returned a few minutes later with a room key. I was still behind the wheel, feeling a bit dazed.
Son, you have what we call road hypnosis. This is Dayton, Ohio, and youre a long way off-route. Your drivers license and car keys are in the clerks office. You can have them back in the morning, when you turn in your room key. Do not move this car until then; I can see it from the Interstate. My shift ends in eight hours, and I dont want you driving until I get home. Have a good trip, and thank you for your service.
Ned Harrison
2. My wife and I had taken a four year old foster son who had just been placed with us to McDonald’s for dinner. A policeman walked in and the 4 year old became visibly agitated and even said “I need to hide so the cops don’t see me.
Understand that to his biological parents seeing the police was a common but not usually a pleasant experience. (continued…)
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He was not really buying our explanation that the police are our friends and so I went over and explained the situation to the officer and asked would he mind just coming over and introducing himself to our 4 year old so he could see that policemen were not bad.
Not only did he come over to our table, but he proceeded to take 20 minutes out of his 30 minute dinner break to sit and visit with our foster son and engage him in conversation, let him talk on his radio and see his badge and all his police equipment.
It didn’t solve all the problems that an abused 4-year-old has, but that effort completely changed his perception that the police were the bad guys.
Wray Rives
3. I pulled over because I had to go. I was peeing on a tree on church property. A cruiser pulls up mid-pee – can’t stop and knew I was busted. The officer rolls down the window and says to me, “I’ll let God sort you out. Then he drives away.
bentmccorndick
4. When I was a kid my mom had a seizure behind the wheel of her car when my sister and I were in the backseat and thankfully she just ran into a road sign. The paramedics took her away and the other officers just called my dad and ignored the two kids in the back seat crying.
This amazing older officer got us chicken nuggets from a fast food joint and told us about his horse. Whenever I see people online saying they hate the police, I think of that nice old man that got dinner for two crying little girls and spoke with them about horses.
There’s no point painting people all with one brush.
Prannke
5. In 2008 I was travelling from Budapest to Belgrade by train. Before the train actually left Hungary it pulled up for a routine customs/passport check. As soon as I saw the customs officers walking up the train checking passports, I knew I had left it in my hotel.
Once they got to me I pretended to look for my passport in my bag, knowing it wasn’t there. When they realized I didn’t have it they pulled me off the train and into their border security building, and I knew I was screwed. (continued)
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I was pretty scared. I was 18 and travelling through Eastern Europe by myself, and the officers were scary looking dudes; big guys with crew cuts and not a word of English other than “come”, “sit” and “no.”
They took my bag and pulled everything out. Everything. They found my BB guns, and I was a little worried they might mistake it for something more serious than it was.
Luckily, they found them funny. Two of them had the BB guns and were running around the room ducking behind chairs and tables shooting each other, laughing like children. It was actually pretty funny to see the scary looking dudes running around playing like that. They finished playing after a while and put them back in my bag. From there on I was a lot more relaxed.
Tom Jockel
6. I was chilling in the park, in my car. An officer knocks on my window, asks for my ID. I give it to him and he says, “You’re legal. I just confiscated this from a bunch of minors.” And he handed me two cases of beer.
printerbob
7. When I was 6, my parents got me a puppy. The first thing I wanted to do with the little guy was walk him down to the park and play in the grass. On our journey down the street, a patrol car pulled up next to me, and asked where we were going.
I grinned ear to ear and told him I was taking my puppy for a walk and we were gonna play in the park! He proceeded to slowly follow us down there in his cruiser and waited at the park the entire time we played. On our way back, he said that I had a cute puppy and to watch for cars. Then he drove off.
Dogg_of_RS
8. Got picked up going 25 mph over the limit in Chicago. I was on my way to college in Minnesota and I was still 500 miles away. The police officer asked where I was going and I told him I was headed to school.
He asked where school was, and what I was going to school for. I told him I wanted to be a teacher. He took my license and registration, came back a few minutes later with only a warning, and one piece of advice. (continued…)
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“Next time someone asks you what you’re going to school for, don’t say ‘I want to be a teacher,’ say, ‘I’m going to be a teacher.'” And then he walked away.
Never drove that fast through Chicago again, and I took his advice to heart.
korthim
9. Last summer, my daughters and a few kids in the neighborhood were outside having a lemonade stand.
We were chilling inside when all of a sudden, we heard sirens. Close sirens. Remembering that last year, a child was actually arrested for selling lemonade without a license (seriously) we panicked and ran outside.
There was our local police officer, hanging out on the corner with a dozen kids swinging off his arms, chugging lemonade, dropping quarters like a mack. He had pulled his squad car up on the curb and opened the doors to let the kids crawl inside and run the lights and sirens.
The kids will never forget it, and they will probably all their life view police officers as the super heroes they are because of this one guy with some free time. Well played sir, well played.
Sonnet Fitzgerald
10. I’ve only had one really good experience and it was 21st November 2003, the day my father died.
I was 260 miles away when I heard that dad had died and without thinking jumped in my car and floored it – I just needed to get to him.
I got pulled over by the police two miles down the road after running a red light at speed.
I jumped out the car to an officer that was in his late twenties who immediately tried to force me to the ground without analyzing the situation. (continued…)
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His colleague who was about 40 approached, asked for my name and asked why I was so upset, I told him to which he said ‘sit back in the car, let me work this out for you.
I sat in my car whilst he spoke to the other officers that had by now attended and he came back to me, asked me where I lived and offered to sit in the car with me whilst I drove back home.
His colleague followed behind as I drove back to my house – I was in a raft of emotions, angry, hurt, upset – everything was going through me.
We got back to mine and he sat me down, made me coffee and asked if I had anyone that could drive me back to London where my dad had died, he then called them for me.
He stayed with me for 2 hours, he even called the next day to find out how I was.
I never really thanked him but I will be eternally grateful to him for being the comfort that I needed to make me stronger on the one day of my life I felt weak.
Anthony Surage
11. I was 21 and working my way through community college, 2 jobs, etc. I was dead tired, greasy, funky from cleaning a pizza place, and I had a lot of clothing in my car in order to save time and not head home for things.
I started to nod off at the wheel and ran a stop sign.
The officer pulled me over, and stopped, mid-sentence to ask me if I was living in my car. He wanted to set me up with a place to stay with some church friends nearby. He also asked me if I was hungry, with heartfelt concern.
It was a simple thing, but I won’t forget it.
Deborah Firestone
12. I once had my car stolen while I parked it in Boston. Naturally, I went to the police station. As soon as I walked in cops everywhere turned and looked at me. I guess by my frazzled appearance, they knew something was up. Cops came up to me at random and asked what was wrong. They did this unsolicited.
I told them my car had been stolen. The one cop called his pals over. They listened to my story, took down the plate number and told me they would “take care of it.” (continued…)
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I was bewildered by the attention and surprised by their attitude. You hear so much about donut eating cops and cops on the take and lazy cops or brutal cops and so on and on, that you automatically assume this attitude of cynicism that comes from hearsay, not first hand experience.
A few days later, I got a call from one of the cops. He was as excited as a schoolboy, yelling, “We found your car! We found your car!” like it was a rare thing. Unfortunately, it had been used as a battering ram to slam through a liquor store by the thieves.
The insurance company decided to fix it. The cop with me sadly said, “If I had known they would actually try to fix this wreck I would have put a brick through the windshield for you.” The car was never the same, but I never forgot my unexpectedly pleasant experience with all the cops I met as a result.
Jay Bazzinotti
13. I was walking through the Tenderloin in San Francisco carrying a bunch of laptops (I used to be a network engineer for the theaters.) A cop patrolling the area stopped me and asked me to put the laptops away since I was a giant walking target. I said I couldn’t because my backpack was full.
He then offered to escort me to the Financial District (where my company’s main office was.) All the while, he chatted with me about why marijuana should be legalized, fended off a few crazy people and patted down an obviously super drugged out person.
We shook hands on the corner of Montgomery and parted ways.
Nadia Shaw
14. A traffic copter landed in a field nearby when I was about 8 and I went down to see it. When the two pilots came out of it to run to a nearby fire station, they asked me to watch it for them. When they came back they gave me a set of pilots wings and a coloring book.
SJ135