She turned me into a Gnewt! I got better…

I went to a party last night (at my friend J’s house), and it ended up with about 10 boys in a stuffy basement. Two friends of mine (G and N for this story’s purposes) and I decided to take a long walk. It was about midnight and we just wanted some fresh air, so we left.

J’s house. is near two public schools, so we decided to go walk around near them. We weren’t doing anything wrong– just walking around and having a conversation. N decided to give a “thumbs up” sign to a passing car, but we really thought nothing of it. It’s a lot better than flipping them off– but that probably would have got us into less trouble in the end.

We started heading home after around 45 minutes, but about halfway there a cop car stops right behind us. The cop gets out of the car and says “stop right there! Why are you boys walking late at night?” Our response of “to get some fresh air” apparently was invalid to him. While in the middle of asking us some questions like “where are you headed?” and “what are your names?”, another car shows up. Officer R. Christopher of the BIPD (our first officer) begins to explain to us that somebody called in about kids walking along the road hitchhiking. He then explains that in the past week there have been five fires set, a school broken into, and a house vandalized. He adds that most of these are confirmed to be done by juveniles. He goes on to give us the scare treatment: “So you know, if we get a call about anything wrong here, or at the bus barn, or at the schools, you know who our first suspects will be?” The three of us stayed silent throughout most of the ordeal, only speaking to give information. The two officers treat us like children and say things like “you see the problem here?” and “now I’m a suspicious guy.”

For future reference, giving the thumbs-up sign to a car is frequently misinterpreted.

Officer 2 looks at the bottom of our shoes while officer 1 calls all of our parents and asks if we’re supposed to be where we are. G’s father answers and confirms that he’s free to continue. N’s father comes to get him and take him back to the house where we were headed back to anyways. My parents both didn’t answer their phones, so by protocol the officers had to escort me back to J’s house in the cop car. G comes along for the ride.

G and I stand laughing behind the officer while he knocks on the door. A few of the boys at the party come up the stairs expecting only us, but see the cop and freak out. “J! There’s a cop outside your door!!” J gets to the door and gives G and I the most disgusted look I’ve ever seen. “What the hell did you guys do?” The officer tells J to wake up his parents and then the officer explains the situation to them. G and I are free to go back to the house, but now N’s father is pissed off, J’s parents are woken up, and J won’t talk to us.

This subsides quickly though, as we all realize how silly the situation is.

That was my first ever encounter with the police, and I think I’ve learned something from it: in a town as small as mine, the cops don’t have too much to do. This would explain why they sent two cars. Hopefully I won’t have to deal with them too much more. I would hope that police could treat us more like adults in the future. And I hope next time I spend time with the police, I do something worth getting caught for. ;)