I recently received a really interesting phone call from my oldest son and our conversation went a little something like this:
“Dad, you’re not going to believe what just happened to me.”
“What?” I asked with interest.
“Well, you know how you’ve been telling me to get out and exercise more so that I will be in better shape?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was doing just that tonight after work, you know, riding around on my bike with Joey (his dog) when I suddenly started to lose my balance and needed both of my hands to keep from falling off. So, I released Joey’s leash for just a few seconds and then, right at that almost same exact moment, some guy driving around in an animal control truck pulled up next to me and yelled, `Put that dog on a leash!” So, I told him Joey was on a leash, and pointed out the one that was hanging off his neck. And then the guy says, ‘No, I mean put the leash in your hand!’ So, I promptly bent over and picked up his leash, which was still connected to his harness. The officer then proceeded to drive away, and I peddled off with Joey.”
“So, what’s so interesting about that?” I asked.
“Well,” continued my son, still obviously upset by the encounter, “about 30 minutes later, while I was returning back to my house on the same street, I heard a police siren go off right behind me. So, I turn around and it’s the same officer and his female partner pulling up alongside of me. He gets out and says `Do you have your driver’s license?’ So, I ask him why, and he says, “Because your dog was off his leash’. And I say, `But I’m holding his leash in my hand, just like you told me to do thirty minutes ago! See?’ Then he asked me if Joey’s registration and shots were current, and I said ‘of course’. Anyway, at this point he starts writing me out a ticket for Joey being off his leash 30 minutes earlier. So, since I was getting pretty mad by then, I decided I better turn on the voice recorder on my cellphone and record the rest of the conversation.”
“Let me get this straight,” I said, “the animal control officer gave you a retroactive ticket for something you had done 30 minutes earlier even though you had complied with his warning?”
“Exactly! Now is that crazy or what?”
“But why would he do that?” I asked.
“He said it was because he had decided I had been a smartass the first time around.”
“You have a recording of the officer saying he had come back to give you a ticket because of something you had said to him 30 minutes earlier?”
“I sure do. His exact words were that he was giving me a ticket `Because of your smartass remarks’ when he gave me the warning.”
“So, what had you said to this guy?”
“I don’t think it was anything I said, but rather maybe my body language and the way I smiled at him and shook my head, making sure that he knew I thought he should be out helping animals in need, not harassing me and Joey for no good reason.”
“So how did this little encounter finally end?” I said.
“He just gave me the ticket, smiled, and said `Have a nice day’. Don’t you just hate it when people like that tell you to have a nice day when they know darn well they have just ruined your day for you?”
“Anyway,” I said, “I don’t think cops are supposed to be handing out retroactive smartass tickets. If I had known you could do that, I would still be whipping out my citation book and giving you tickets for most of the years when you were growing up.”
“This isn’t funny, Dad. Tickets are really expensive nowadays and I’m going to file a formal complaint against this guy. I have his badge number and what he said on tape, and I’m going to call his supervisor and tell him exactly what went down. And if his supervisor won’t talk to me, I’m going to go to court and see if I can get the ticket dismissed. Guys like that shouldn’t be allowed to drive around on their own little power trip and give people expensive tickets for no good reason.”
“You know,” I told my son, “there’s this wonderful old saying that I have always loved that goes, `There are things in this life worth fighting to the death over, but they are very few and far between’.”
“So, what are you saying? That I shouldn’t contest the ticket?”
“No, only that you always need to careful about the battles you choose to fight in this life. But if this is one you want to take on, then go for it. And I bet if you call that officer’s supervisor and calmly tell him or her your side of the story the ticket will just go away. I’m sure the Animal Shelter people don’t want their officers out there giving retroactive smartass tickets.”
“You don’t think I’m a smartass, do you, Dad?”
“Well,” I admitted, “if you are, I’m afraid I know exactly where you got it from.”