Expecting Trouble

After a particularly slow evening shift in February, I was on my way home in my private vehicle. I was still in uniform, but was wearing a jacket, so I wasn't readily recognizable as a police officer.

I live two blocks from a neighborhood convenience store known as a "Stop and Rob". As I turned past it, almost home, I was flagged down by a middle-aged woman. She had a scared look on her face, and kept looking over her shoulder. Not sure if she was the victim of a crime, I asked her what was the matter. She replied that she was pregnant, and asked if I could give her a ride home down the street. It was a simple request, and as February in Ohio can be chilly, I let her in the car. But instead of taking her to her home, she asked me to take her to a local bar, no place for a mother-to-be! She also had a strong odor of an "adult beverage" on her breath. My "little voice" started yelling at me, so I turned around and pulled into the convenience store parking lot to figure out what was really going on. I identified myself as an officer, and told the woman to get out of the car, while I turned on my portable radio and called for the district car for a drunk and disorderly woman.

Dispatch advised me that a car was already on the way, and that the convenience store whose lot I had pulled into had just called in a shoplifting. Come to find out, the would-be mom-in-waiting had just heisted a carton of smokes, and flagged down the neighborhood off-duty copy for a getaway! She actually was pregnant, but had lied about her name, and the arriving district officer recognized her as a subject with two outstanding warrants. Soon the rest of the oncoming shift arrived for their coffee, and to see what I had gotten myself involved with. A few started joking that I should be taken in for complicity to theft. After our suspect was placed in custody, I made sure she knew she picked the wrong car to jump into.

Robert D. Stouffer
Police Officer
Xenia Police Dept.
Xenia, OH