A Brush With the Law

Feb 28, 2022

“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.”
Rita Mae Brown

It wasn’t until the police car pulled up that I realized the gravity of the situation.  The evening had started innocently enough… 

I was in my first year at Dordt College (yes, that was its name) and yes, I realize that sounds very much like Dork College. And that perhaps is somewhat fitting given my “dorky” behavior, which will soon be revealed by this short anecdote.

The college, located in a small Iowa town, had a policy that all freshmen (first year students) live their first year in the dormitories. It was a good arrangement for the most part as the close proximity of the dorm to the classroom buildings meant that one could roll out of bed and show up in class not much more than 5 minutes later. I enjoyed the social life of the dorm and I always maintained that, during my first year, I learned more in the dorm than I did in those classes.

The administration mandated a curfew of 10 pm for weeknights but allowed an extra hour on weekends. Usually this didn’t present a problem though as in the event of arriving back after hours a quick knock on the windows of one of the first floor rooms would provide someone who provided the courtesy of opening the door to be allowed access.

One particular Friday evening a bunch of us decided to visit a pub in the next town over, a drive of approximately 10 miles or so. The old adage that time flies when you are having fun is never more true than when a bunch of young people get together for some refreshments. Before we knew it the time to head back to campus was upon us. Myself and another friend (who will remain nameless) however decided that we weren’t ready to go back to lock up just yet. What’s more, we had earlier struck up a conversation with one of the locals who had informed us that if we didn’t want to leave the fun early, that we could go to the town sheriff’s house and ask to sleep in the jail.

For some unknown reason, probably connected to an over abundance of stupidity and an under abundance of common sense, we thought this sounded like a great idea. So our dorm mates bid us good night as they headed back to the campus. After another refreshment or two, the unnamed accomplice and I decided it was time to go pay the sheriff a visit. 

It wasn’t too long of a walk and we were soon banging on the sheriffs front door. It wasn’t unusual for the sheriff to live and work out of the same building. The jail, we had learned from our earlier informant, was located in the basement. 

I’m not sure what type of reception we were expecting, but whatever it was we didn’t get it! The door was answered by the sheriff’s wife, who clearly was not happy to see us. Somehow we stammered out a concocted story that we had somehow missed our ride back to the college campus. After hearing our request for lodging, we were quickly treated to a tongue lashing the likes of we had never heard. To make things worse, it turned out that the sheriff was just recovering from surgery, so late night visitors weren’t exactly welcome.. But even with him being out of commission, the criminals had no easy time I’m sure as long as that woman was filling in.

Unnamed friend and I walked down the street, not sure of what to do. (Thankfully we didn’t go back to our local friend in the pub for more advice). Within a few minutes, a police car glided up beside us and the officer asked us to get in. This is when my brain finally kicked in and I realised the folly of my ways. I started to imagine all sorts of outcomes…none of them good. Definitely this would mean a trip to the dean’s office with, who knows what to follow. Perhaps some sort of punishment, perhaps even expulsion! Maybe we would even be deported!

I don’t remember the exact conversation with the officer but it soon became clear that he was taking us back toward the college. At about the halfway point we were met by the college campus police who escorted us the rest of the way. And as the miles passed it became more and more clear that this wasn’t a big deal. A couple of college kids had missed their ride…happens all the time. By this time we were smart enough to realise that correcting the record by stating that we intentionally missed our ride was better left unsaid!

The college police officer whisked up to the door of North Hall and courteously unlocked the door for us, wishing us a good night. Needless to say, we thanked him profusely!

And so the story had a happy ending… except for one fly in the ointment. It turned out that our little adventure had happened so quickly that we arrived back at the dorm before our roommates had gone to bed. And try as we might, we could not get them to believe our story. They were convinced that we had somehow gotten a ride with another student. Of course, unnamed friend and I could have sent them to talk to the sheriff’s wife, but that wasn’t going to happen!