It started out as just a fun little moment. I’m a patrol officer in Clearwater, and it was my day off. My daughter, Naia, just started crawling with serious purpose, and her favorite thing right now is this red plastic toy car my sister gave her.
It’s one of those foot-powered ones, no motor, just baby giggles and wobbly steering. I set it up on our quiet cul-de-sac, thinking it’d be cute to “pull her over” like a mini traffic stop. I clipped my badge to my shirt, grabbed my radio, and walked up beside her all serious-like.
“Excuse me, ma’am, do you know how fast you were going?”
She just blinked at me, drooling and trying to chew the steering wheel. I fake-wrote her a ticket with a crayon on a napkin. My wife, Sasha, was filming and cracking up.
Then we heard a car door slam. A woman across the street was walking toward us, fast. “You can’t just let a baby roll around in the road like that,” she snapped.
“That’s not funny. What kind of cop are you?”
I tried to explain it was staged, just for laughs, totally supervised. But she stormed off, pulling out her phone.
Ten minutes later, a real cruiser showed up. And guess who was in the passenger seat? It was my friend and fellow officer, Marcos.
He had a bewildered look on his face, like he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or scold me. Marcos climbed out of the squad car, and his partner—who I didn’t recognize—stepped out on the other side. My heart sank a little, even though I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong.
The neighbor stood on her porch, arms folded tight. She looked pleased that she’d “caught” me doing something irresponsible. Marcos ambled over, shaking his head.
“Toby, what in the world are you up to, man?” he asked. Then he chuckled when he saw Naia in her red toy car. I shrugged, feeling a little silly.
“It’s my day off. Sasha wanted a cute video of me ‘pulling over’ our daughter. Naia loves that car, and, well…here we are.”
Marcos’s partner eyed me.
“The complainant said there was a baby driving in the street with no supervision.”
I pointed at Sasha, who was literally three feet away, phone still in hand, looking stunned and a bit annoyed. “We’re right here, filming. No one’s leaving her alone.
It was just a playful moment.”
Marcos stepped forward and grinned at Naia, who was now clapping her hands and trying to grab for his shiny badge. “Well, from where I stand, this officer,” he said, pointing to me, “seems to have everything under control.” He gave the partner a look that said, This is obviously fine. The partner sighed, probably regretting the call-out.
The story doesn’t end here — it continues on the next page.
Tap READ MORE to discover the rest 🔎👇
