police

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

I didn't understand how police got people to pull over, so I thought they had an invisible pole sticking out from the front of their car to push the others to the side.

Nate

I used to stare at our policeman when he went out on his bike, waiting to see if a blue flashing light would come out of his helmet!

yellownessy

When I was about 6 years old, I pulled the tag off a matress that says "Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law." I believed that the police were going to come to my house and arrest me, so I hid in my room all day.

Lindy

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

my mum told me she had heard an interview with santa on the radio where he had admitted that he didnt come down peoples chimneys at all but in fact visited every police station in the land to collect skeleton keys which would enable him access to every home in the land in order to leave all good boys and girls their appropriate presents.
this information meant i willingly suspended disbelief for an extra couple of years
also ended up quite traumatised when i moved out into my own home , thinking the police could get the keys back off santa and gain access any time they wanted

veestar

I'm American, and I used to believe that when people were bad, they went to see the police; but when people were REALLY bad, they had to go see the President of the U.S.

Candi

My older brothers did not want me, their little sister, to play board games with them. They told me that the (recommended) age on the box meant I couldn't play unless I was that age or older because it was against the law and I believed it and thought the games had tiny little policemen inside of them that would pop out and arrest me if I played it. I believed this for a really long time.

cathy

My parents used to say that the police were "giving someone directions" when they had a car pulled over on the side of the road. I wondered how the police knew that person needed directions until i was around 15 when I finally figured out that they were just kidding.

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 a child, I always wanted to grow up to be a policeman because I thought that policemen couldn't get arrested!

Emmet Tomas

My mom threatened that if I didn't eat all my vegetables that the police would come and arrest me.

Lisa T.

my mum told me when i was 11 if i swore the police would take me to jail.

tg in blue

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 believe that there was a huge book called "The Rules" that listed everything you weren't allowed to do, and it was written by the Government, and the Police could check it from time to time

Anon

I used to believe that there was something called the grammar police and if you say a lot of things wrong(like saying axe instead of ask), the grammar police will come to your house and give you a ticket for bad grammar. I got scared and tried not to make a mistake while speaking!

Anon

When I first heard the term "banned", I thought that the police would come around house to house and put arm bands on those people who were to be banned, or excluded.

~Katie

when i was little my family lived on top of a conveinience store that my dad owned and once i forgot my precious belongings, a poly pocket, a shiny penny, and a pencil that had my name on it. It was 12.00 and my dad had already shut everything so i went down and the alarm went off and i thought the police was going to arrest me and i thought the slammer was a place were you only eat ketchup.

Anon

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

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