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Traffic stop: I pulled over a lady for speeding. Like the vast majority of my clients, no ticket was issued, just a warning to not do
it again. I turned to go back to my patrol car and the driver was so relieved she blurted out her thanks to me as: “I love you!”

One day I was out on foot patrol and came across a teenager in the woods near the school. He saw me and immediately started
running, so I gave chase. I caught him after he climbed over a chain link fence, realizing too late that the fence had been designed
– intentionally – to have poking cut ends along the top. The kid got some bloody puncture wounds in his hands. Turns out he
had no real reason to run; he had no drugs or contraband, no warrants, he wasn’t a runaway or truant, he literally just didn’t
want to talk to me that day. He explained his older brother had just died and he was feeling sad and anti-social about everything.
We both agreed that running from me didn’t turn out so well for him. I actually felt bad for that kid.

I was working traffic out on highway 3 northbound and I caught a guy speeding. As I was talking to him he asked for directions;
he had just started a vacation and was going cross country. He was in the merchant marines and wanted some road time, so he
had rented a car and was off to Florida; but now about 30 minutes into his journey he was lost. “I take it you don’t work in the
navigation department?” I asked him. “No, I work down the engine room.” “Well sir, you are heading toward Canada right
now…which is pretty much the compete opposite direction of your destination.” I gave some easy to understand directions to
head southeast, so he could get to Florida without going through Canada first.

Another lost guy, with his wife: both were from France and visiting the United States. He had a small map and he showed it to
me so I could clue him in. The map was so small that the state of Washington was smaller than my hand, missing most of the
major roads he’d need to know about. This was before cell phones had maps on them so I suggested to him that should go buy
a local road map that would show much more detail.