Being on maternity leave this spring has allowed me to meet my dear daughter at the end of the driveway and get her off of the bus. We walk down the driveway (on those random warm Michigan spring days) and chat about her day. Her new little brother loves to eat but usually gives us an hour to play outside before he wants his dinner. So we chill and play with the dog, rake, ride bikes and scooters. It is really a great time.
One day, I had swept the driveway and it was nice and rock free. I decided to draw a little road for her to ride her bike on. After drawing the road, then came the school, ice cream shop, park, McDonald’s, bank and of course the police station. Throughout the course there were stop signs, railroad tracks and pedestrian crossings. She had to obey the traffic signs (might as well learn early!), it’s the law right?
Well, I caught her running a stop sign…. So I pulled her over! Using old checks, I wrote her a ticket and charged her a fine, $250. She laughed and giggled. It was fun. Too fun. She went rogue on me.
She started running stop signs, driving hap hazardly, it was frightening. I had to pull her over again. This was going to be a ticket of a life time. Reckless driving, driving while silly, failure to stop, on and on and on. Well, this was even more fun. Fine - $1,000. Giggles are getting bigger…
More craziness, driving through buildings, across people, no stopping, robbing banks, ahhhhhh….. who is this child. I had to pull her over again. Every time I got close, she ran again…. Finally, I caught her. ‘Step out of the bicycle, Mam’. Off she steps and I start reading her the riot act. Reckless driving, armed robbery, driving while laughing, failure to yield, failure to stop, felony evading and eluding… this is not going to be good.
As I am writing the ticket, SHE RUNS! Like a wild, laughing banshee down the driveway, screaming and giggling. That’s it, I impounded the bike… It was like an episode of Cops, except this cop was laughing harder than she was. I couldn’t catch my breath to get her to stop or even run after her. With the bike put up, I was sure the citizens of Driveway Town were once again safe.
As the call came into the station of another maniac on the roads, I headed out… the vehicle was different, but the driver was the same….
Here we go again, this time add driving on a suspended license and driving a stolen vehicle.
A Cops work is never done…
