The When I was just two years in the police.

When I was just two years into policing, and I was still a fairly inexperienced beat cop,

my partner and I were out on patrol one day when we got a call from dispatch.

An arrest warrant had been issued for a guy who'd failed to keep up with child support payments, and a judge determined that he was

hiding assets. We used to deal with stuff like that from time to time. Random dads trying to beat the

system, sometimes addicts who barely even remember that they had kids. And neither group tended to be

fans of the cops, so their greetings were usually pretty frosty. But after rolling up on our delinquent,

washing his car outside his apartment building, he was actually pretty chill at first.

After we confirmed who he was, and he was perfectly polite and civil, the guy then says,

ah, man, the lady at the courthouse said this might happen.

Now, my partner asked what he meant by that, and the guy said that he knew exactly why we were there.

He admitted that he hadn't paid his child support on time, but had driven over to the county

courthouse just two days prior to pay off the outstanding balance.

Because it was past the deadline, the lady said an arrest warrant might

already be in the process of being issued. But if that happened, he could ask the arresting

officers to contact the courthouse, and they'd confirm that it had been issued an error.

Now, Joe Sixpack is probably going to read this and think, what the hell? Criminals can just do that?

Claim that there's a mistake and make the cops contact the damn judge?

Well, yes and no.

If we get a call about an escaped axe murderer,

it's much more of an ask-no questions type situation.

But then when it comes to stuff like issues of custody or child support payments,

...