Sir, can you step out of the car please.
Something different happened to me on Friday.
Having just arrived at home from work, I was still sitting in the car, waiting for the song on the radio to finish and to make good use of the time I was collecting the parking receipts and other bits of paper scattered around the car.
As I was ready to leave and switch the engine off, I looked in the rear view mirror to find one police car directly behind me. Looking up I was surprised to find another police car directly in front. Keep in mind I am parked at this stage.
“They must be here for me”, I thought to myself.
2 police officers got out of the car behind me and approached me, in the meantime I can see at least 3 police cars frantically roaming the area.
“Hi, can we have a word with you please” said the first officer.
“There is a 2 year old child that was reported missing, we have reports that she was seen in a black mondeo”
No bonus points for guessing which car I was driving at the time.
My heart sank, “Oh dear”, I uttered.
“Can you step out of the car please, so we can ask you some questions”
The questioning started
“Why are you here”
“Where are you coming from”
“What is your name, Date of Birth and your place of birth”
“Can you open the boot please”
“We’re going back to the car to check you on the computer, stay here”
In the meantime, other police cars were still roaming the area, one of them stopped to say the child was found at a neighbour’s house.
It seemed the 2 policemen were waiting for confirmation over the radio before they send me on my way, once they got that one of them approached me.
“I suppose you heard that, thank you for your time, we have to be careful”
Still in shock, I thanked him.
The strange thing is during the whole conversation I was thinking, I’ve just been in town, I have a parking receipt, I must be on CCTV in and out of the NCP Parking, I paid using a credit card, effectively I was thinking of confirming my alibi.
All in all, happy ending. One thing about the Lothian and Borders Police, they seemed to have responded very very quickly to the report, covered the area and remained polite even with the adrenalin pumping in the rush to find the missing child quickly.
