When I was 5 I was in the car when my uncle had a minor car accident. The policeman asked to see my uncle's license, and I saw it briefly when he gave it to the officer. The license was printed on safety paper that had green and red swirls in the background. The officer said his license was expired and I believed the policeman knew it was expired because it had gone moldy (hence the green and red swirls).

Megan

I used to think that things my parents told me not to do(i.e. jumping on the bed) were against the law and if the police found out I would go to jail.

Dyth

When I was little, I overheard a policeman on a TV show say, "You're under arrest". I thought that meant that the person being arrested was about to go to sleep (rest).

TxTetley

I believed that the police had a laser beam like the radar detector that could tell if you had your seatbelt on and if you didn't you went to jail. My mom told me that when I was like 4 so I would always wear it. I found out otherwise when I was 16 years old.

Emily

When I first started driving I always hid my cigarette when passing a police car. I didn't differentiate Mom and "the law"!

marilyn

I used to believe that if you dialed 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 that the police would come to your house and you would get in BIG trouble.

Lydia

I searched these boards and I think this one would be categorized under "police."

There was (and still is) a tag attached to pillows and mattresses:

DO NOT REMOVE UNDER PENALTY OF THE LAW....

and it's got some other gibberish after that.

One day when I was four, I tore the tag off the mattress.

I waited in fear for cops to come.

I thought somehow there would be some sort of "signal" that let authorities know that SOMEBODY did indeed remove THE TAG under PENALTY OF THE LAW....

But no cops came.

I threw the tag away in the garbage and hoped I wouldn't get into trouble! HEE!

Suz

I used to think that the police didn't know that we called them coppers behind their backs!

Chris

My mom used to tell me that the police hid everywhere and we had to becareful while driving. So my sister and i would look out the windows and behind trees and around signs to see if we could find any police men.. it kept us occipied

dani

i used to belive that all police men could see throgh your car and see if you had your seatbelt on (still i put my seatbelt on)so if i forgot when i was young i'd scream and put it on

hi

I thought that if you went to jail you wouldn't die. I think it came from someone telling me that if I went to jail I wouldn't go to heaven and I kind of misinterpreted it. I remember imagining going to jail and being the only person left in the world (because no-one else ever went to jail of course) as humans had become extinct and i could see that crocodiles had taken over and they were crawling into the jail where I was.

Ashley

I used to think that Legal and Illegal meant the same thing (illegal)

Dhruv

my friend used to think a SWAT team was pest control.

wacko zacho

As a kid, my tiny podunk private school took us to the local jail for a field trip. For kicks, the policemen took our fingerprints, took mugshots of us, and locked us with our teacher up in a cell.
Afterwards I believed we'd all been unfairly given permanent criminal records on that one fateful day.

Kiana

When out with my parents, we passed the Sheriff Court (grew up in Scotland), thought the Sheriff carried a gun and shot people

Wendy McGregor

When I was little, I always thought that if you said the name of a different restaraunt or grocery store than the one you were in, you would get kicked out or arrested. So for example, when my mom and I were shopping in Costco and she said "After I get the milk we're going to Fred Meyer's." I always said "Shhh! You can't say that! It's against the law!"

Danielle

When I was little I used to believe that I was smarter than police because i thought that you could give a criminal a lie detector test and then you would know if they were the criminals or not I thought i was gona go up to police one day and tell them about lie detector tests and they would pay me and i`d become famous later i found out how these tests work and theyre not just a red button lighting up when you lie and a green one lighting up when you tell the truth

Laura

I used to think that the SWAT team (used when capturing dangerous criminals) was actually called the Squat Team.

Pat

When I was a child, about 4 or 5, I used to be scared to death of policmen because of the guns they carried. I was so afraid that I would look at them wrong, or say something wrong, and they would take out their gun and shoot me! Now that I think about it, this was a strange fear, especially considering that one of my best friends at the time was the daughter of a state trooper who was one of the nicest guys you'd ever hope to meet.

Delwin

When I was 7 years old, I finally found out from my parents that COP did not mean 'Chief of Police'. Before that, I always wondered how all policeman could be Police Chief! My parents got quite a chuckle out of that one!

Linda Mourgos