Compassionate Cop Lets Maine Man Off With a Warning

2023-11-14 14:12:23

For the sake of keeping him anonymous, I’m not going to share the officer’s name or even which local department he works for. What I will tell you is that this interaction happened between Augusta and Skowhegan last night.

I’ll start by saying this has been the longest week of the year for me. We just wrapped up our week-long food drive (Camp Out Hunger) at Sam’s Club in Augusta. Following that event, my mother was taken by rescue to Redington Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan for sudden-onset Afib.

Last night, I was up in Skowhegan visiting with her as she is still suffering from a persistent arrhythmia, and, given that she recently had a TIA, her care plan is a little different than it would be for most suffering from this condition.

I finished up my visit last night and needed to head home to help my wife with the bedtime routine and to get to bed myself. I said bye to Mom and headed out. It’s also worth noting that I’m currently driving her truck because I had to pick it up from the hospital.

As I was headed home through an undisclosed municipality, I passed a police car going the other way. I glanced down at my speedometer and knew exactly what was coming. I saw the brake lights come on and he spun around to “come get me.”

Sure enough, the blues came on, and I pulled over to the shoulder. The (extremely nice) officer came to my window, introduced himself, and asked if I knew why he pulled me over.

I had nothing to hide and told him I was speeding. He confirmed that he had me at 66 in a 45.

I handed him my registration and insurance and we talked for a moment about where I had been and where I was heading. The story of my mom being in the hospital did come up, but I certainly didn’t use it as an excuse to get out of a speeding ticket. I was speeding and I deserved one.

He went back to his cruiser to run my license and make sure I wasn’t wanted for a string of international crimes and then came back to my window. He let me know that he was cutting me a HUGE break because the ticket would have been close to $300 bucks.

I then thanked him profusely and told him he didn’t have to do that and that it was my fault for speeding. He thanked me for my honesty, told me to slow it down and to have a great night.

So Mr. Officer, thank you for letting it slide this one time and for having some incredible compassion when you didn’t need to.