My Run in With the Law

I was sitting on a white wall covered in spray paint on a beautiful June day in my hometown of Milford CT, when the girl sitting next to me pulls out a marker and puts her name on the wall next to her and passes it to me so I think “what the hell” and write my name in little letters next to spray painted “Hatebreed” and “Slayer.”
Next thing I know a cop pulls up. I think nothing of it, then he points to me and the other girl and was like “you two sit there” and points to the platform outside the doors. So I think okay, whatever, and sit. Then he asks if anyone has identification so I get up to go and get mine from my car and he starts yelling at me to sit down so I’m like “okay, I was only going to get my ID” and he was like “I don’t care sit down” so I strolled back over and sat down.
Next thing I know he radios for backup and when it arrives the guy pulls out a camera and starts taking pictures of the wall and my name written in little letters surrounded by huge spray painted words. Then all of a sudden the cop pulls out his cuffs and pulls me on to my feet and I am like “you have got to be kidding, you can’t be serious” and he is like “yes miss I am serious” so I am like “oh god my mom is gonna kill me.” So he puts us in the other cop car because his is a K9 unit and when the cop starts the car Latin music is blasting.
Then when driving down the street in the back of a cop car all cramped, (which is amazing seeing as I am five foot two inches), my friends are singing the song locked up by Acon which ironically came out like the week before. Anyways when we hit the Post Road I look at the cop’s speedometer the damn cop is going 60 mph in a 40 mph zone, talk about reckless driving.
Upon arriving we pull into a badly lit garage where the cop takes out his gun and locks it up in a locker and then takes us out of the car. We walk into the booking station and stand in front of the desk in a fully lit off-white painted hallway while he files our belongings (the other girl’s cell is going off nonstop). By then the cop has uncuffed us and I am rubbing my wrists. One cops is looking through the other girl’s stuff and comes upon a picture that looks shall we say, a little odd. Some of the pictures are missing (for good reason) so the cops looking at the negatives and starts laughing and says “what is going on in this picture” the other girl goes “I have no idea I didn’t take them.” It ended up being a kid all tied up in a state of undress.
The cop is laughing hard now because all the negatives depict a very strange scene. So then they take the other girl into the other room to fingerprint her on their new handy-dandy high tech fingerprinting computer. I am left to pace back and forth in front of the area where my mug shot was taken (which I smiled for), which was also the hallway I mentioned before, to make small talk with the cop about my brother and the time he was arrested. Finally it is my turn to get my fingerprints done.
So I walk into this room which was much bigger than necessary seeing as it only held the new fingerprinting machine, which was very small. So the guy puts my finger on the screen and pushes down real hard. It does not work. He does it again harder. It does not work. “Sorry about this,” says the cop, “but the machine is new we just got it in and I really don’t know how to work it” (It’s a freaking fingerprint taking machine how do you think you work it!).
I just smile and say no problem. So, after a half hour and ten bruised fingers my prints are finally done and after signing a promise to appear in court the police let us go. Great! My car is a mile away, my boyfriend is out of town and I cannot think of anyone else to call (I was definitely not calling my mom). So we start walking down the post road and I finally think of someone to call and she comes and gets us, drops me off at my car and I drive home. Pull along the curb outside my house, turn off the engine and take several deep breaths “okay Shallyn you can do this it’s not like you were arrested for robbery or something major like that.” So I get out of my car, shut the door and start walking up the driveway slowly. I see my mom in the back yard, “Hey Shallyn what’s the matter?” asks my mom. “You’ll never believe where I have been.” “Where have you been?” she asks. I take a deep breath and look out over the marsh at the beautiful view and say simply, “Jail.” “WHAT?!” she screams.
Oh here it comes. “Why were you in jail Shallyn Ann Bodnar?” she asks. “Because I wrote my name on a wall with a marker,” I respond. She just looks at me for a long time and then starts laughing uncontrollably. “Only you Shallyn, only you,” she starts saying in between laughing.
Well that is not was I was expecting to happen so I am all happy. So after a while she stops and goes well you better call your father. So I call my dad and tell him what happened and he goes, “where did you get the marker.” “A friend,” I say. He goes, “No, you’re lying to me,” he says, “where did you get the marker?”
I roll my eyes and say, “it fell out of the sky, Dad.” After a few minutes of lecturing I hang up and just start laughing. Wow, what an adventurous day. So, as it turned out I had to pay 50 dollars restitution to pay for the cleaning of the wall and did 25 hours of community service. And that is my run in with the law.