Random Act of Kindness

I was shelf shifting the juvenile collection today, avoiding things I really should be doing because I really hate shelving books when it means I have to move everything on the surrounding three shelves to make one little book fit, when the phone rang in the resource center. Since you have to catch the phone on the third ring before it kicks over to voice mail, I considered ignoring it. But no, two weeks away from work made me dash to the phone in hopes of catching whoever needed help. Good thing I did.

It was the local police station on the phone! The woman asked for me by name and told me I needed to go move my car because it was illegally parked on the street in front of the library. What? I stupidly responded, "but I've parked in that same spot for the last six months." She said there was an officer behind my car and could I please go outside and move the vehicle.

At this point maybe I should have been concerned about a crank call, but I grabbed my keys and headed out after telling friends in tech services where I was going (I'm not completely nuts). Sure enough, there was a city police vehicle parked behind my car when I arrived. The officer got out of the car and said the street worker/people called in to say I was illegally parked by a no parking sign. Sensing an imminent ticket, I told the officer the same stupid, but honestly baffled "but I park there all the time" line, apologized, and said how much I appreciated the phone call.

I need to insert here how nice the officer was. I think he was more annoyed to be answering a call for a parking ticket than anything else. He mentioned to me he wondered if "they" didn't have anything better to do than waste his time on this issue, noticed that the sign was indeed obviously new, and asked me (hypothetically) what they were thinking putting the sign up so high that no one could reasonable see the thing. Long story shorter, he told me he wasn't in the mood to write a ticket - woohooo - and said if I backed up my car three feet I'd be fine.

Hello!

He backed up the police cruiser. I backed up my car. I got out and thanked him again. He got back in his car, radioed in I had moved, and left the premises. So, thank you Mr. Policeman for your random act of kindness. I very much appreciate NOT having a parking ticket to pay this week.

I'll be sure to pass on the kindness today when the opportunity arises.