I spent some of my youth in Gladstone, and even got my first speeding ticket from Officer House.

But here's another GPD story -

Once, my car was parked on a steep driveway in Gladstone. We were at the front door of the house, when we heard a loud snap. It was the parking brake failing, and the car, still in gear, began to roll backwards. Nothing we could do but watch, as it shot down the road, going backwards with no one in it. A neighbor lady was blindly backing out into the street in her new VW Passat, and WHAMO, my car absolutely destroyed the rear of the VW. But, was it over? No, my car then changed direction, and wiped out the left side of a 1 year old Ford Taurus. Bust.

So, the lady in the VW was fine, I walked over to the house with the Taurus - a family of like 10 were just sitting down to dinner. "Who owns the blue Taurus?" I ask, and out walks uncle Bob. A huge guy. I thought he was going to scream at me, but unexpectedly he starts howling with laughter. "I've hated that fucking car since the day my company gave it to me. Everyone else got loaded Accords, I got the Taurus." Then he says - "Let me call this in, I gotta get an official report for my company." What I didn't know at the time was, when he called it in, he just said "We got a 3 car accident here", and of course, FIRE, ambulances, and the police all show up code 3. Super.

Also arriving on the scene was the husband of the Passat driving woman, who'd just gotten off work. He was ballistic, screaming at me, and at the cops to lock me up, take my license, etc. Officer House had heard enough, backed him up against a car, and informed him if he didn't shut the fuck up and go in his house, he'd be spending some time in the back of the squad car to cool off. I've never loved a cop more.

In the end, I got no ticket, insurance covered everything. Everyone was fine, and everyone went home. But ever since, everytime I saw Officer House out on his bike, I'd wave, and he'd wave back. Story over.