Cops and doughnuts

This is another story from the annals of strange things people do in the town I work for and how the police chief handles them. It actually happened last week on the big schmooze-a-thon.

During this schmooze-a-thon, important government dignitaries went on a bus ride around the town looking at places where the village will be doing construction and other sprucing up over the coming summer. I was along because I'm working on funding for some major sidewalk projects, and had to show off where the sidewalks will go.

Near the end of the trip, we stopped at the town athletic facilities to look at the baseball stadium that is being renovated. We ooed and ahhed over the new bullpen and lights and then got back in the bus. Just as we were, some young people at the other end of the parking lot started pulling doughnuts in a blue station wagon with the doors open. Besides the silliness of doing something like that on dry pavement and in that car, they did it in front of the Chief. Oops.

So the Chief got back off the bus and walked over to the other end of the parking lot making the universal cop gestures for "Stop your car." When forming the mental picture of this, remember that the Chief is a cheerful bald man who stands at five-foot-nothin. Of course, we're all in the bus grinning at the stupidity we witnessed and wondering what the Chief was saying. Shortly after, a squad car pulls up to take over, and we pull up alongside the car to pick the Chief up and go on our way. The officer in the car can take it from here.

As the school bus driver pulls up from behind the car and next to the Chief, she leans out the window and says to him, "Did you see? They have a tail light out, too."