No Medical Emergencies Accepted

My Dad and I were talking the other day and I mentioned that when I got stopped for speeding in Alabama the first thing the deputy said was "Is there a medical emergency I need to know about?"

Since there wasn't and I couldn't think of anything that would possibly get me out of the ticket I told him "No".

Dad laughed and told me that when he was working there was no medical emergency in the world that he would accept as an excuse.

When I asked why, he told me about his first - and only - experience with a "medical emergency"

As a brand new deputy, he was on patrol one night when a car went speeding by.

Dad turned on his blue lights and pulled the car over.

As he was getting out of his cruiser the guy driving the speeding car came running up to him yelling that his wife was in labor and they were on their way to the Navy hospital.

Dad told him to get back in his car and that he would escort them to the hospital.

He called dispatch and told them what was happening and they alerted the guards at the gate of the Navy base.

Dad was in the lead and when they got to the gates, the guards manning the gate stood aside to let them pass.

He flew through the gate headed towards the hospital, but the car he was leading made a quick left turn and disappeared.

Dad and the Navy police searched for him for quite a while but they never did find him.

Because he'd called dispatch to tell them what was going on and to alert the Navy base EVERYBODY knew about it and of course he took a lot of ribbing.

He finished telling me the story and then said "After that you could have been holding your head under your arm and I wouldn't have escorted you anywhere"

All it takes is one bad apple.

I guess that deputy up in Crenshaw County hasn't run into his bad apple yet.