You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
A motorist telling a cop there’s a dead baby in the trunk and the cop not checking.
Can you imagine.
“There’s a dead baby in the trunk, officer.”
“A dead baby? Oh well, then. Please drive on and have a nice day.”
“No ticket, officer?”
“Of course not. You say you have a dead baby in your trunk. And if you say you have a dead baby in your trunk, why wouldn’t I just blindly believe you and let you drive away.”
I have covered all manner of things in my career.
Tonight was unique.
Around 3:15pm, a Millersville rookie cop stops a Dodge Charger with temporary tags in the back window.
The 3 men in the vehicle are all from Saudi Arabia. They have Saudi passports and Saudi licenses.
If I am a cop, I’m getting on the horn right now with my supervisor to ask for back up.
Not this rookie cop.
The men allegedly tell the cop they are going to a mosque in Franklin, Tennessee to bury their dead baby that has been prepared for the Islamic Burial ritual.
If I didn’t call my boss a moment ago, I’m definitely calling for back up now, right?
Wrong.
This cop let’s the men talk some more.
The Saudi Nationals tell the cop that there is a dead child in the trunk, and to touch or disturb the child would negate the burial ritual and the child would have to be prepared again, which would be very disrespectful to the deceased baby and to their religion.
The officer has been on the job for 5 months. How many traffic stops has he made in his life. Most cops, 20 years on the job have never made a stop like this one.
What does the rookie do?
Does he call his boss? No.
Does he open the trunk to take a peek? No.
Does he get their names or addresses or copies of their Saudi identification? No.
He doesn’t want to insult them, their dead child, their religion, so he lets them go.
Perhaps Hands Up Don’t Shoot is ringing in his ears. Perhaps I can’t breathe is filling his thoughts.
We will never know.
But we do know he simply lets the 3 Saudi Men with the alleged dead baby in the trunk drive away.
I hear this story and I’m immediately thinking something’s not right here.
After doing this all on his own, the rookie cop calls his chief, who immediately puts out a BOLO across the state to stop the car.
The chief will later defend his officer calling him a good cop who made a mistake, but he admits he would have opened the trunk to see if there was a dead child and to see how it died.
If it’s me out there, “OK everyone out of the car.”
But I am not out there.
The Millersville chief says so far there is no police report or coroner’s report that indicates a baby death.
OOOPS. That’s not good.
I also checked to see if there was a mosque in franklin, tennessee. There’s one in the county, but not in that city.
OOOPS that’s not good either.
makes you wonder?
What was in that trunk?
A dead baby wrapped in a burial shroud? An old tire? A bomb?
The chief says he checked with a religious expert who credits the officer for handling this very appropriately.
OK, I guess.
Glad he thinks so.
I’m not sure I do.
It seems like so much went wrong so fast.
I know he’s a rookie, but it seems like more than a rookie mistake.
We have a dead child in the trunk.
Your senile grandpa knows that’s a problem.
When we asked the chief if his officer was disciplined, he would only say he was talked to.
“He made a mistake. He’s a good cop,” the chief will say.
I hope the next time I get pulled over, it’s by this guy.
I’ll just tell him have a dead baby in the back.
“Well then sir. I’m sorry to slow you down. Please be on your way.”
Just when you thought you had seen it all.
Still no sign of the car, the men, the mosque or a dead baby.
Life’s Crazy™