Wonderduck's Pond

August 11, 2018

Duckford Blue

It was another late night at the job last night. 11 hours on the clock, almost 12 if you count the lunch break... by the time I finished my mandatory 10 hours of OT for the week, it was 945pm and I was the last person in the building that wasn't one of the three cleaning crew people. Even they were leaving out the back door as I was heading towards the front. Honestly, I think I had been the last person in the building since around 7pm... pretty much everybody tries to be gone as early as possible on Fridays. Except for me, of course, mostly because I enjoy singing while working and I don't want to disturb my coworkers.

Sure, that's the reason. Really. It has nothing to do with my not being able to drag my butt out of bed with any alacrity in the morning. Anyway. My work done, I grabbed my cane and headed out the door to the parking lot. Where I saw a police car sitting right behind the Duckmobile, headlights on and clearly running my plates, or whatever they do these days. Technology: ain't it grand? Immediately I began wondering what did I do wrong? Because that's the first reaction of anybody when a police officer begins an out-of-the-blue interaction with you: the police are talking to me, ergo I must have done something wrong. Even if, like me, you haven't had a traffic ticket in 32 years and the last time you were in court was for jury duty.

I began trudging towards the car, parked at the far end of a decent sized parking lot and after a long day of work... and ohbytheway, the police car too... when the police officer yelled "Is this your car?" I had to restrain an insane impulse to yell back "No, this one is," point at an empty parking spot, and start miming unlocking the door, getting in and driving away. Instead, I behaved like an actual adult and yelled back "Yes, that is my car." Another question came back: "Are you Wonderduck?" "Yes...?"

The officer backed up a bit, then drove right up next to me, driver side window to my left. He smiled, or at least that's what I inferred from the movements the big furry caterpillar on his upper lip suggested. "There's no problem, it's just that a lone car in a big darkened parking lot late on a Friday night... just thought it'd be good to check it out, y'know?" I explained myself, finishing overtime, last one in the building, yadda yadda. "Great, glad there isn't a problem. You have a good night, Mr Duck."

And he pulled away, leaving via the lot's back exit (coincidentally, the same way I usually leave). A few moments later, I see him go flying past, gumballs spinning, siren screaming.

So that was how my Friday night at work ended. Upon reflection after a day's separation, it wasn't as exciting as I thought at the time.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 06:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 505 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Great that it turned out to be nothing, but man, nobody needs that adrenaline spike coming off of a long shift, am I right?

Posted by: GreyDuck at August 11, 2018 08:33 PM (rKFiU)

2 Glad it was nothing!

Maybe it's my attractive female privilege, but I would have been more bemused than anything else in this scenario. I've been pulled over about a dozen times, mostly for speeding, and have a grand total of one ticket and one written warning. So I don't really get nervous in this kind of situation.

(Of course, said privilege works the other way - part of the reason I don't have more tickets is that the times I wasn't speeding, the REAL infraction that got me pulled over was not stopping in the crosswalk (I mean, come on) but rather "driving while attractive". Luckily, nothing came of those incidents. I was always very businesslike and polite, which brought the interaction to a quick end.)

(I also once got pulled over for driving a Honda Civic. The officer told me he was checking it out because one had been reported stolen in the area. I said, "Thank you so much! As a Honda Civic owner, I know this is the most stolen car in America, and I am so glad you're checking it out!" and handed over all my information. He was a little taken aback by my enthusiasm but quickly cleared me and sent me on my way.)

Posted by: Mrs. Will (Kathryn) at August 12, 2018 07:35 AM (JPRju)

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