the law

When I was 4, when I didn't like a turn of events in a movie I was watching I thought I could call the police and report it and they would arrest the moviemaker or something for putting that event in! I would "call the police" using my toy phone whenever something I didn't like happened in a movie, then waited by the window watching for the cops. Once a cop actually did drive by my street after I did this, so I thought the police had finally responded to one of my reports!

I was told that criminals would sneak into the house at night and the only way they couldnt get me was if I stayed in my bed. this somehow morphed into me thinking that anytime my feet touched the ground at night I would get pulled under my bed by terrible criminals. even tho my bed was just a matress on the floor.

I used to not get why anyone would plead guilty since wouldn't you just go to jail for sure then? (this was before I knew they would go easy on you if you plead guilty) I also thought parole and probation was the same thing

I believed that if you cut off those tags on pillows that said it was illegal to cut off, the police would somehow know this and come to your house and arrest you.

You know how they say a crime in punishable by "up to x years in prison or y dollars fine? Well I thought when a person was convicted they got to pick which one for their punishment

When I was younger, I thought cops knew you didn't have a seatbelt on because the seatbelt light sent out a signal to their radio.

As a young child all my cousins were many years older than me and by the time i was 8, they were all in college. They were always talking about "taking shots," but I didn't really realize what it meant except that it involved drinking from a tiny glass. Then, I had a horrible allergic reaction to something and had to go to the doctor. The doctor tole me I would need to get a shot of Benadryl. I smiled back at him assuming he was going to grab a small glass of medicine for me. Imagine my horror when he brought out a needle!

I thought for a long time that trespassing was actually "trustpassing" because you entered even though they didn't trust you to invite you in..

When my mom would buy pillows or lawn furniture, there would be a tag attached to it, saying "Do not remove, under penalty of law". I thought that if I tore it off, an alarm would go off at police headquarters, and they would come to my house and arrest me. One time I actually tore one off, then went to my room and sat on my bed, waiting for the police to show up.

When I was in kindergarten I walked to and from school by myself and had to cross the street. I believed that the crossing guard (maybe a 6th grader -- I know, another era) had the power to arrest and jail jaywalkers. I spent a horrible afternoon waiting for the police to come get me.

I thought the reason the police had batons and tasers was in case they had to fight a criminal who was immune to bullets!

I thought if someone paid your bail you didn't have to go to jail at all even if you were convicted i.e it was like a get out of jail free card. I figured most people just couldn't afford it and that's why they stayed in jail.

When I was little I used to believe that if you take medicine when you're not sick, you'll get sick. (Like, if you take headache medicine you'll get a headache, if you take stomachache medicine you'll get a stomachache, etc.) I believed this until I was 11. To this day I'm still terrified of taking medicine when I don't need it. That's probably a good thing!

I used to believe that when the cops "booked" you, they bashed you over the head with a huge rule book. I was terrified of police.

When I was in 6th or 7th grade, there were stop-sign shaped signs all over the school, that said, "STOP STDs!" None of us even knew what STDs were, but we just knew you'd get arrested for them...

when i was in elementary school i was taught not to "drink and drive" i had no idea that they were talking about alcohol. For years i thought they were talking about any type of liquid, even water!