"May I see your identification?"

The Players
Leanna
Karma
Ben (Leanna’s Boyfriend)
Ryan (Leanna’s Brother)
Junior (Ben’s Brother)
NOTE: Ben, Ryan, and Junior live together in an apartment in Orem.

So, the other night (I believe it was Thursday) Leanna called me around eleven pm asking me if I wanted to run with her to the grocery store. While at the local Albertsons (it’s one of the few things open that late at night), Leanna noticed a stand of Valentine’s Day merchandise and decided that she wanted to get Ben something, so she picked out this little red teddy bear.

Well, Thursday nights are the unofficial “boy’s night out,” so Leanna thought it would be best if we left the bear outside Ben’s window as a surprise so we wouldn’t interrupt them. Upon arriving at the apartment complex, Leann found a nearby parking spot and shut off the car while I took the bear and, being as sneaky as possible (which is hard to do when the ground is covered with very crunchy snow), went up and placed the bear by what Leanna told me was Ben’s bedroom window and ran like a girl back to the car. Not having the patience to wait and wanting to see Ben’s reaction upon discovering the bear, Leanna promptly texted Ben telling him to look out his window. Ten minutes and ten texts later, the bear was still sitting outside. Apparently, Ben was having trouble figuring out what was supposedly outside his window because 1) he was looking for Leanna thinking she had shown up as a surprise, and 2) because the bear had been placed outside of Ben’s kitchen window, not his bedroom window. So, I once again ventured out into the snow and once again sneaked up to the apartment, moving the bear so that it was outside of the correct window.

While running back to the car like a giddy girl, I noticed that there was a police car on the other end of the parking lot. Apparently, something was going down. Well, we began to discuss the possible reasons behind why a police officer would be in the parking lot at this time of night (it was a little after midnight at this point) when the police car starting driving towards us. This didn’t cause too much alarm…until the car pulled into the free parking spot next to us. But wait, it gets better. A second police car pulled around the corner and stopped (you guessed it) right behind Leanna’s car, blocking us in. Next thing we know, one of the officers is shining a flash light into the car and knocking on the driver-side window. As Leanna rolls down her window, we hear the most frightening words imaginable. “May I see your identification?” Apparently, Leanna and I weren’t nearly as sneaky as we thought. One of Ben’s neighbors had seen us and reported us to the security office for “suspicious behavior”. But wait, it gets better. All of the commotion and police lights had attracted the attention of Ben and his roommates. Next thing we know, Ryan, Ben, and Junior are all outside and trying to explain the situation to the officers between fits of hysteria. Yeah, because that’s really going to help the situation. Luckily the officer was really nice and understanding. He gave us back our id’s and told us, for future reference, to either have our fun at a more reasonable hour of the night or to be less obvious while doing it.

I just can’t get over how ridiculous the entire situation was. Plus, it seems kind of ironic that the first time (in my life!) a police officer asks for my identification was over an aborable Valentine's Day teddy bear.