While accomplishments like this are a reward in and of itself, honoring their struggle like this means a lot, too.
Scrolling through Reddit’s “Made me smile” subreddit and I came across a highly upvoted thread titled “Guy is happy to be pulled over.”
Barring an emergency situation like a kidnapping or a case of domestic abuse, I couldn’t imagine anyone being happy to get pulled over, but, this guy genuinely did.
Before I explain why, you can watch the short, 2-minute video of the traffic stop for yourself below.
The incident actually happened around Christmas 2021.
The video was uploaded by the Pinal County Sheriff’s office as a part of their “Fridays with Frank” series where they highlight a noteworthy traffic stop by Deputy Frank Sloup.
This particular traffic stop was part of Arizona Governor’s Office of Highway Safety DUI Task Force deployment.
It looks like this driver in a Ford F-150 ran a stop sign.
The first words the driver says to Deputy Sloup honestly surprised me.
“I’m going to be honest with you, man. I’m kind of happy to get pulled over, officer.”
“Outstanding, well, you couldn’t have gotten pulled over by someone nicer than me,” Sloup replies.
Then, we learn the reason he’s “kind of happy.”
“I just got 37 days sober.”
“This is the first time in 40 something years I’ve been pulled over and haven’t been sweating my “you know whats” off. I’m actually going to a meeting (an A.A. meeting) right now.”
Anyone who’s struggled with addiction knows how hard it can be to not only kick a habit, but kick it time and time again, especially in light of relapses.
Proud of his accomplishment, the driver shows off his A.A. chips to the Deputy Sloan.
A.A. attendees get chips for first committing to the process, then chips for one, three, six, nine months, one year, and annual chips after that.
“There’s my chips,”
“Man, those are good to have in your pocket,” Sloup replies.
Pleasantries aside, Sloup gets down to business.
“So, obviously you committed a violation of Arizona Motor Vehicle Law tonight, right? My job is to stop people for that. “
“However, you doing something as honorable as kicking that really, really bad habit. I think that, as a benefit, you’re going to get a warning tonight.”
“Drive safely for the rest of the night. Continue to fight this fight because it’s, it’s a good one.”
Deputy Sloup could’ve either given him a ticket or a warning like he did, but he went above and beyond.
Although just a few seconds, he was patient with the driver as he dug out his AA chips, responded empathetically when he confided his struggle and subsequent accomplishment to him, and laid a bit more reinforcement in the foundation of his sobriety by acknowledging and rewarding his success thus far.
“I appreciate it, man. I need all the help I can get,” the driver replies.
Re-addiction and needing all the help someone can get, it’s quite literally the first step in AA, to acknowledge that we’re powerless and need help.
It’s our job as fellow brothers and sisters to be, like Deputy Sloan, that community around people struggling with addiction in any way we can.
“He says that he was glad to be pulled over,” Sloup says in a debrief at the end.
“There was no odor, no signs and symptoms whatsoever. Had a thing of sparkling water in his center console…he’s starting a new chapter in his life and that’s pretty cool, so, he gets a warning for that.”
Bravo, Deputy Sloup, but more importantly, bravo to that man on his success thus far.
Hopefully, as of this blog post, he’s working on his two-year chip.
That’s awesome. These are the moments that help keep people sober. Awesome post❤️