Keep Bailing

Most people love to ask me about my work. Bail bonding must seem exciting, dangerous, and mysterious – all at the same time. I have to disappoint them, though. We just don’t have a lot of exotic tales. That’s because people we bail out are mostly ordinary folks who have gotten themselves into an unfortunate, often surprising to family, situation.

Law enforcement officers tell me that they get similar questions, but of course, their jobs are very different. Their stories range from harrowing to hysterically funny.

Jen’s List recently two great cop stories pertaining to kids. One thing that I love about kids is you can never predict what will come out of their mouths – or when.

POLICE # 1
While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, ‘Are you a cop? ‘Yes,’ I answered and continued writing the report. ‘My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police. Is that right?’ ‘Yes, that’s right,’ I told her. ‘Well, then,’ she said as she extended her foot toward me, ‘would you please tie my shoe?’

POLICE # 2
It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me. ‘Is that a dog you got back there?’ he asked. ‘It sure is,’ I replied. Puzzled, the boy looked at me and then towards the back of the van. Finally he said, ‘What’d he do?’

In a similar vein, I ran across this article about Harry Penny, who used to work in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. Now retired, he turned his experiences into a humorous book called “Behind the Badge: The Funny Side of the Thin Blue Line.”

His other goal for the book is to humanize police officers is the eyes of the public:

“Cops are either seen as the Gestapo or jack-booted thugs. The cop is always the bad guy in newspapers,” the author said. “I tell all the funny stories that don’t make the newspapers. My book gives another side to police officers. This book shows the human side of cops.”

Although I’ve never heard anybody call me a “jack-booted thug,” people are surprised to find out that our family business is bail bonds. Their image is apparently of some shady character in a seedy part of town who talks with a cigar in his mouth.

In a lot of ways, bail bondsmen are as misunderstood as police officers, so I sympathize with Mr. Penny for wanting to show the lighter side of the job. I thank him too, for writing a truly funny book!