When I was young and I got ringing in my ears, I thought that it was my call from the police and that they needed me to arrest somebody! I believed was really a police woman but that nobody knew it! Men in white coats coming to take me away!

Anna

I used to think whenever I heard the phrase "A man is helping police with their inquiries" on the news. That there was this really nice man driving around with the police helping them solve the case and find the criminals.

Alan Stewart

The parents of a co-worker of mine convinced him that the Salvation Army was an emergency parental control enforcing organization to be called upon by desperate parents. They often used the threat 'Don't make me call the Salvation Army'.

Klava

On a rest stop during a long road trip there was a parked police car. My mom told us that if we ran fast enough past the car, it would think you were speeding and the lights and siren would go on. I believed it long enough to get very tired running past, which was probably the plan.

Julie

When I heard the word "Interpol" for the first time, I figured out it was some very important organization chasing criminals, but I was sure the "pol" stood for "Poland", not "police". Since I'm Polish, I was beaming "See? The bad guys in America fear OUR police!"

Anon

I used to hear my parents talk about the Highway Patrol and I misunderstood them. I thought they said "troll" as in troll under the bridge in the billy goats gruff story. Every time I would hear a siren, I would run away in a panic thinking the troll was going to eat me.

DahDoll

There was this 'bad' kid in my neighborhood who would always give this huge fake smile and wave at passing police cars. When I asked her why, she said "If a kid waves at the cops, they HAVE to wave back, or they lose their jobs."

bixdog

I used to think that you would get arrested if you didn't swing your arms when you walked in public

Anon

Up until the age of 13 I believed that cops told you to put your hands in the air so that if they chose to shoot you, you couldn't deflect the shot with your hands. Somehow I thought that if you put your hands in front of your heart, if someone shot you there it would just bounce off your hands.

Anon

My older brother once told me that if you put your socks on the wrong feet that the police would come to arrest you and throw you in jail forever. So each morning I would have to ask my mum which foot each sock would go on because mum knows everything. This continued for months until I was getting ready for school one day and I realised that I had put on odd socks! I spent ages crying to my mum that "I don't want to go to jail" and "don't let them take me away" for her to realise that my brother was sat on the sofa sniggering and that maybe the two were related... (He always was a little sod)

paranoid socks

When I was about 6 I wanted to go on a bike ride with a friend but I had a skirt on, she told me I would need clips otherwise the spokes would get me. I thought the "spokes" were some kind of bicycle police who told you off if you wore the wrong clothes

Ella

I thought if someone hadn't passed the Law of Gravity, we would all be floating around in space.

Trudee

I used to believe that all the first names of judges was Justice till I was doing my 4th high school year.

Tafadzwa

For some reason, I thought if you were arrested by the police, they were protecting you from something, like, if you were being robbed, they'd arrest you. I'd hear on the news about there'd been some protest and twelve arrests, and think "good, those twelve people will be alright then". Not sure how that happened.

backwards

When I read the newspaper about a person who was 'jailed with bond set of what amount' or a person was 'released without bond,' I thought that the person was jailed with James Bond.

Anon

I always believed that having your dome light on in the car (while driving at night) was illegal. It was only a few months before my TWENTIFITH birthday that I realized it was a lie that my parents told us - I guess we asked them to turn it on one too many times during car trips! Scary how we believe everything our parents tell us as if it's gospel.

Angie

One time when I was like in 4th grade (8 years ago) my father was driving my sister and I home from the Grocery Store, and I guess he was going a little over the speed limit and he got pulled over. This was a new experience for me, so of course I start bawling my eyes out and screaming: "DON'T TAKE MY DADDY TO JAIL! DON'T ARREST MY DADDY!". I thought that when you got pulled over or just looked at a police man or woman that you would automatically go to prison. Lucky for my dad, he got out of a speeding ticket because the cop thought I was too cute!

SillyGirlKristIZZLE!

After having watched Cops for most of my young natural life, and my mother telling me that if I didn't put my seatbelt on the police would take me, I believed that cops just picked people up and took them away FOR NO REASON AT ALL. I thought that they could just come snatch you on a whim if they saw you and decided you were worth the effort. Every time I passed a cop car, I would slink down into my seat and watch them with suspicion.

Surrelou

When I was very small (about 3 or 4 or thereabouts) I vastly overestimated the power of the police. I didn't know about laws (as a concept) that they were also required to uphold and follow as well. Anyhow, I thought they were a villainous, secretive, nasty and somewhat arbitrary gang. I "knew" that if you insulted or looked at them funny they would drag you off to JAIL (all caps to my three year-old mind) but that just not provoking them was no guarantee--JAIL was still a possibility. In addition to this, I thought that the president was far more powerful than he is, and that people who insulted him (anywhere, on any occasion, not just to his face) faced immediate and dire punishment, probably being executed on the spot. This perceived state of affairs bothered me surprisingly little, but it did irritate me a bit that a government would so grossly misuse their power. Because of this I whispered that "the president stinks" or something while I was up in a tree and there was no one in sight. Unsurprisingly I am alive and well.
P.S. I don't live in Myanmar, North Korea, or Uzbekistan (:-D)

Miss Taken

After watching american cop shows like CHIPS as a kid, I used to believe that all you had to do to catch a criminal was put out an APB and couldn't understand why the police here didn't do that.

Gary D'Arcy