Ham at 3am

Cops can be dicks.

'Round about 3:11am this morning, I was awoken by ringing telephone. Glazing at the caller ID, I almost didn't answer it because it said "Privacy Manager." Luckily, I did.

"Hello, this is a call from the Carmel Police Department," the recording said.

What the fuck? What did the kid do to get into trouble?

After the recording, a police officer begins questioning me as to the whereabouts of my son. Mind you, I'm not very coherent due to, you know, waking up from a dead sleep. Try explaining to a cop at 3am why your "Mr. Long" and not "Mr. Schiro," especially when you have no inkling as to why said cop is calling.

"He's supposed to be at Kane's house."

"Do you know Kane's last name?"

"Um..." was the best my groggy mind could muster.

"Your son is with some other kids, sir. He's underage and out after curfew."

At this point, I'm trying to piece it all together. Was my son and other kids walking around the streets at 3am? My wife has woken up enough and can hear the conversation.

"He just came to the house to get some movies and they are going back to Matt's. He called to say they were coming. He even came upstairs and kissed me goodbye."

I am a very sound sleeper and woke up for none of that. Only the cops phone call. So, my son was being driven by Kane's 19 year old brother to get some movies from our house.

The cop proceeds to lecture me about curfews. I start falling back asleep when he asks if we can come pick him up. Really?!? Yes. There were at a certain intersection that was about a mile down the road and less than a mile from their destination.

We pull up to the flashing lights. I get out the car and the cop lectures me and my son about curfews again. Nevermind that he was with a legal adult. Apparently, there have been a rash of break-ins and robberies in the city. And the cop was serving and protecting by pulling over a car with "kids" in it. A car he clocked going 36mph in a 35mph zone.

I don't know where I was going with this post, but geepers. The whole affair really felt, "Cops can be dicks."