Racking His Brain

What possibly could he have done?

Just after midnight and as he passed through an intersection, Tyler Chetman saw the flashing police lights in his rear view mirror.

He pulled to the side and his mind raced to figure out why he was being pulled over.

The light was green.

He was driving under the speed limit.

Both headlights were operational.

To his knowledge, the rear lights were also working.

While he waited for the patrolman to walk to his car, Tyler pulled out his driver’s license and grabbed the car’s registration from the glove box. As he was taught to do in driver’s education class, Tyler put his hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel with his window already down.

“Good evening, sir,” the officer said. “May I see your license and registration please?”

“Good evening. Sure, here they are. Is there something wrong, Officer?”

“Just a minute,” the officer said shining his light on the license. “Mr. Chetman.”

As the patrolman walked back to the patrol car, Tyler’s mind still spun trying to determine what violation he had committed. He was drawing a complete blank.

The officer returned and handed Tyler’s information back to him.

“Mr. Chetman, according to the City of Binghamton, you are a very safe driver. We’d like to present you with a little token of our thanks for being so safe. It’s a new program we’re testing out and will expand up if successful.”

The officer handed Tyler a 20-dollar bill and a Certificate of Safe Driving from the City of Binghamton, signed and dated by the officer who was speaking with Chetman.

“Enjoy the rest of your evening sir. Again, Congratulations.”