My mother told me that it was against the law to cross busy streets until you were 12. One day I asked the D.A.R.E. officer that was giving a presentation to our 5th grade class if that was true. Needless to say, I was the laughing stock of Ms. Homburge's class for that whole year.

Anthony M.

My dad used to drive a lot with his job, and as a kid, I would go to work with him on a weekend.

I was always worried about him speeding, so he told me that the policemen let him drive fast because he had to go a really long way.

I believed him for years on that one.

Hollie

I used to think that when someone was read the "Riot Act" that a policeman would pull a little card out of his pocket and read it to the bad person, like a Miranda warning.

ericableu

When I was 4 or 5, my older brother and I were playing out on our front lawn when a man drove up and asked us, "Is this Ellington Drive?" It was, so I told him "Yes." Later, my brother imformed me that it was illegal to talk to strangers. For months I lived in fear of policemen coming to arrest me for talking to that man.

Laura

I used to believe that if you were arrested, you were automatically put in jail. I thought this because many episodes of 1980's cop shows ended with the villain being arrested (if he is not killed), and the conflict of the episode is resolved as soon as the perpetrator is placed under arrest. The concepts of "trials" or "the possibility that the arrested person is innocent" did not occur to me at the time.

Matt T

Because police officers were assigned to "protect people" and "uphold the law," I thought it was illegal for a police officer to take up smoking cigarettes because it was inherently dangerous to oneself.

Josh

When I was around 6 I asked my mum what FBI stood for. She told me it was the Federal Investigational Bureau. I believed it was FIB for the next four years.

L MAN

I thought cops were out to get me when I was three and I would scream "Get a gun! it a cop!" I just love my dad for teaching me.

Sara Mclen

I used to believe that undercover cops hid under covers/sheets.

Holly

When I was a kid, around 4 or 5, I believed it was the law that people had to move once every year. That's how often we moved when I was a child.

Tom

When I was a kid I thought that when a cop drove by you were supposed to call them a pig and oink at them and they didn't mind. One time a cop threatened to give me and my brother each a really big fine and we felt so bad that we didn't tell anyone for years.

Sam

In England, the news often reports that "a man is helping police with their enquiries". I used to believe this meant that some lucky individual was given a notepad and pen, and asked to go round interviewing people about murders and so forth, and got to be a pretend policeman for the day!

Andy

when i was little, i used to believe that if a guy didn't sit down to pee, he'd be arrested (i thought that bc as a girl, we sit down, everyone else had to or else)

*shakes head*

My mother always said I should write a book called, "I Useda Think.." Finally There's a place out there for all the rediculous things "I Useda think" as a child. One of them goes like this..

I Used to think that it was illegal to eat in your car. As me and my mother did this all the time, I always got so scared and put all the food under the seats every time we passed a police car.

Valerie

Growing up in the 60's, I constantly proved to be quite the source of amusement to my siblings, especially since I was the youngest of eight kids in our family. Like the many times I overheard my eldest sisters cursing at police cars when they'd go zooming past us. They'd say, "Hey look, there goes another %$&^@%! Pig" and I'd just kept trying to look for the cute little piggies in the back of the squad cars, always wondering why the police would have those critters in their cars and how my sisters could see these animals in the back seat, but I couldn't. It took a few years, although eventually I learned that this was just another derogatory, slang euphemism they used! What I find even funnier now, is that one of them is actually a Sheriff's Deputy and they don't care much for being called a "Pig" one bit, but I never miss a chance but to rub it in that she used to call Cops that, all the time. haha!

Dazed n' Confused Redneck Ridgerunner

I used to believe that there were fashion police that wandered the streets undercover, and if i wore something they didn't like they'd arrest me.
This belief started when my sister made fun of something I was wearing and told me to watch out for the fashion police, little did she know i took her seriously.

Stephanie

My oldest son believed that if you went outside without your shirt on the police would arrest you. We figured out later that he had been watching "Cops".

Will

My mom would tell me that if I crossed the road without holding her hand I would go to jail. She told me Taxis were cops too.

Giselle

I used to believe that if you tore the tags that say "Do Not Remove" off a mattress or pillow, the cops would come and arrest me.

SlightlyStoopid

Sometimes television re-runs are a good thing. A teenage neighbor had convinced my then three-year-old daughter that the police would arrest her and take her to jail if she was "bad." She chose to believe the teenage neighbor instead of my telling her it was nonsense. Well, the fear was laid to rest when she watched a re-run of Chips and noticed the recurring theme: Someone is in danger, and here come the police to *help* them. Thanks to Chips, my daughter learned to see the police as friends, not enemies.

Proud mama