It’s the fuzz! Or is it???

As you may have guessed from earlier stories, my dad wanted his kids to be security conscious, to be aware of what’s going on and react to it. In my youth, sometimes the reaction was good and sometimes it was just odd—and there were other times that aren’t worth mentioning. LOL! This story is about one of the odd reactions.

It was a Friday night and I was driving my girl home after a date. We were 18. Like me, she lived in a somewhat secluded area…no street lights and lots of room between houses. As I made the turn into her neighborhood, police lights started to flash behind us. I was certain I had done nothing to be pulled over, but I stopped.

As I pumped my brakes and looked in the rear view mirror I noticed the car really did not look like a police car—not even an unmarked one. I got suspicious, but wasn’t sure. I didn’t want to just sit there and wait for some maniac to walk up to the car. I also didn’t want to drive off, leading some maniac to my girlfriend’s house—or have it appear I was running from the police. What to do, what to do??? I came up with a third choice. Like my father, I kept a small baseball bat (and tools, a snow shovel, a blanket, etc) in my car, just in case. You never know what you’ll need!!!

I grabbed the bat and told my GF to get in the driver’s seat, keep the doors locked, and keep an eye on me in the mirror. If it was not a policeman, she should drive someplace safe. {Why didn’t I just do that? Kids!} Anyway, I got out of the car and walked at an angle towards the middle of the road and back towards the “police” car. I didn’t want to be too close to it. Soon I could see there were three guys in the car, but not their faces.

Me: Is there a problem officer?
Guys in car: What are you doing with that bat?
Me: It depends if you’re policemen or not.
Guys in car: {lots of laughter}

Then they turned on the car’s interior light and I could see a friend of mine sitting in the back seat. He was out with two guys (who had a flashing light for some reason???) and convinced them to play a little joke when he spotted my car. We chatted for a few minutes. Before I left I told them they were lucky my dad was not driving my car because he would have shot them. He would NOT have done that, but I wanted to give them something to think about before they considered playing that potentially dangerous joke again.

Moral of the story: I got lucky. I NEVER, never, never should have gotten out of the car. I should have done what I wanted my GF to do—drive to a well lit, populated area. I hope none of you are ever in that position. But if you are, don’t get out of the car like I did—even if you do have a baseball bat with you. =)