When I was about 4 my family and I took a road trip with our luggage "secured" to the roof of the old station wagon.Of course all the luggage ended up on the road somewhere between CO and OK. When my dad reported the issue he called the State Patrol.I thought he had called in the trolls who lived under the bridge and I was scared crapless-there was more than one troll under the bridge?They helped locate lost luggage?My dad was fuming over the lost luggage so I never did ask why he called the trolls.I am sure I believed that the state patrol had offices under all bridges until I was 10.

Bridget

Whenever my parents would see a cop in my small town, they would say, "There's John Law!" I thought that there was an actual cop in town with that name, since both of my parents have worked with the police and knew many cops. I didn't realize that it was a euphemism for the police until I was 20 YEARS OLD. We were in Hawaii and my parents said, "There's John Law!", and I felt like an idiot.

Natalie

When I was younger my sister told me that unmarked trucks patrolled neighborhoods and nabbed kids to bring them to juvie like the dog catcher. She then explained that juvie is a place where I would be suction cupped to the wall. Every time I saw one afte that I would whisper "there's the juvie truck". That wenton until I was about 7.

Mana Doll

I used to think that if you didnt throw your trash away at mcdonalds, you would get arrested. so one time when i went to eat at mcdonalds with my grandpa, he didnt throw our trash away. i ran out of there as fast as i could so the police couldnt get me!

Margaret c

When I was younger, I was terrified of riding in a fast car, so to get my mother to slow down I'd shout that she was going to get a "lottery ticket" if she didn't stop speeding.

Anon

my parents had me convinced as a child that there were special kids police. whenever i had a tantrum they would literally get on the phone and tell the kids police that i had been bad and that they would need to come and get me. i would scream and cry and tell my mum to call them back and tell them i would be good (which she did)

Anon

From the time I was a toddler I believed that all law enforcement was carried out by "The Man". This was, in no small part, due to whenever I did something publically unacceptable (sticking my hands or feet outside an amusement park ride, making noise in a restaurant, refusing to let go of a toy in a store) my parents would indicate the ride operator, manager, or security guard and say "The Man will make you leave," "The Man doesn't like that," and the ever-popular "The Man would have to take you away". For too long I was convinced that anyone with a uniform and a gun or just a cheap twenty cent badge was "The Man."

Anon

When i was little, i was so scared of going to prison for some weird reason, that i wanted to become a policeman when i grew up, cuz you know, policemen never go to prison, they are the good guys, the ones that noone suspects, and that never do anything wrong (since they know the rules).

Jelly

I used to believe that if i lied or was naughty or whatever, that the police would come and put me in those huge things which mix up concrete.... and i really believed that and hardly told a lie since then ;)

Jeannine

i used to believe that you had to be very talented to be a police officer because you would just know if a person wasn't wearing his seatbelt, like a 6th sence.

Anon

When I was in 1st grade police officers sometimes visited to talk about traffic safety, etc. I was afraid to talk without raising my hand because I thought that if I interrupt the police officer or annoy him, he will shoot me/ put me in jail.

Anon

When I was 4 i broke a window by throwing a stone, and my mates told me the police would come after me. For the next 4 years I was hiding whenever I saw a policeman.

Petter

When I was little, I often forgot to buckle my seatbelt. My parents constantly reminded me, stating that police officers can see everything. This lead me to think that they all had x-ray vision, and many times I tried to wave at them through the car door, to see if they would be able to see through it.

Ashley

I used to believe that if me and my sister were fighting in the car and there was a cop behind us, that he would pull the car over and arrest us.

Becky

I used to think that breathalyzer tests were administered by people blowing good long puffs into the cops' faces and that the cops determined their drunkenness by the potency of the smell.

Dizzy dude

my brothers told me that whenever you went to sleep you had to keep your arms inside the duvet. And if your arms were ever out of the duvet then you would get arrested by the police as having your arms outside of the duvet was against the law. I believed this until i was 8 when i saw that my brothers had their arms outside of the duvet.

Louise Brett

i used to want to be a police woman when i was young because i was terrified of going to jail and i throught if you were a cop you couldn't be arrested.

Joanna

One time i was in the mall with my dad and I was about 5 i wanted a cinnabon so bad i bugged my dad until a cop came up and my dad was like hey my son is being bad are you gonna take him away the cop said ill give him one more chance. That scared the hell out of me the rest of the day and i didnt say another word.

Flyte

When I was around 5, I went with my parents to downtown LA. My dad and I were waiting in the car for my mom while she was shopping at a store. We were apparently parked in a "no stopping anytime" zone (something I was unaware of at the time) and my dad ended up getting a traffic ticket. So then we just started driving in circles around the block, and I asked my dad why we couldn't just park. He said it was because he got a ticket. So I used to believe that anytime you get a ticket for any reason, you had to drive around the block a couple times.

Anon

I used to believe my older siblings when they told me that if I was bad the policeman would come and get me and put me in jail. When I was five we moved into our new house and I fell asleep in a bedroom closet. No one could find me later, and a policeman was called. you can imagine how freaked-out I was to be rudely awoken by a policeman pulling me out of the closet by my ankle! My mom gave my older siblings quite a lecture when I flew into hysterics at the sight of the poleceman and had to explain as a young child that I was a good girl, and I did not want to go to jail. I still have a healthy respect for a uniform, any uniform!

youngest sibling