When college freshman Haley Goff was pulled over by a Shelby police officer on Christmas Day, it was the first time she’d ever been pulled over in her driving career. And she was not very happy about it – until the officer came to her window.
“I was in my pajamas, I had my hair up, driving over to my grandparents to visit them on Christmas,” said Goff. “I’m thinking I didn’t do anything wrong. [The officer] comes up to my door and I looked at him scared to death, and he hands me this gift card with a note. I can’t even remember his words, I was so shocked.”
Goff received a $20 gift card to the Duchess Shoppe in Shelby with a note that read, “On behalf of the Shelby Police Department and Shelby Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #180, you have either demonstrated safe driving, or look like you could use some free gas to get you to your holiday destination. Please drive safely and seasons greetings!”
And she wasn’t the only one – a number of Shelby drivers received surprise gift cards over the holidays as a way for Shelby police officers to pay it forward.
Capt. Lance Combs stated officers gave away $500 worth of gift cards throughout Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, thanks to generous donations from the Shelby Fraternal Order of Police as well as the Shelby YMCA Running Club.
“I wrote up some brief rules and assigned a set of cards to the officers; we were looking for people with good driving habits – using turn signals, making complete stops, driving the speed limit, and wearing your seat belt,” said Combs.
Though she had heard of police officers in other cities performing acts of goodwill during the holidays, Goff was taken completely by surprise.
“I wish I would’ve hugged him because I’m low on money, I’m a broke college student, and I put it to good use,” she said. “I’m so grateful for what he did, such a small thing meant so much.”
Combs said it was fairly easy to spot exceptional drivers on the road, as they tend to stand out among the rest – though he noted some drivers’ initial reactions were not very pleasant.
“I had some interesting reactions from some people,” he said with a laugh. “You could see people’s attitudes change from being extraordinarily upset and defensive to smiling and shaking your hand. One guy asked me if he was on camera.”
Mansfield resident Falon Sevits said she feels a bit guilty now for expressing her frustration at the officer who pulled her over on Christmas Eve. Sevits was on her way to work third shift at Crestwood Care Center in Shelby.
“He comes up to my car and he says where are you headed, and I had an instant attitude,” she remembered. “He said when I used my turn signal going into the left lane I did a good job, and he wanted to give me this gift card for having good driver safety. I took it from him and I’m like, thank you? Like, are you serious?”
Combs said one recipient used his gift card to purchase two boxes of doughnuts to bring to the police department. He noted the officer had fun comparing stories during their shift.
“We don’t get to do that a whole lot,” said Combs. “The feedback was even more positive from the officers, I think they really enjoyed doing it.”
Both Goff and Sevits noted they posted their new gift cards along with their personal anecdotes to Facebook, partially to prove it really happened and partially to spread the good work about Shelby officers.
“I really didn’t think he was pulling me over to be nice,” said Sevits. “It was very nice of them, I was utterly shocked. I would never have dreamt that would happen.”
“With all the negative media towards cops, I think this was good for them, so I posted it to Facebook to show cops aren’t all bad,” said Goff. “Most kids my age are paranoid when they see a cop, now when I see a cop I think to myself they’re just doing their job, they’re just trying to protect us.”
Combs noted the goal of the gift cards was not to try and change perceptions about police officers – rather, to change driver behavior by being present on the roads.
“When people see a car stopped on the side of the road, whether for a good or bad reason, they naturally slow down and drive more carefully,” said Combs. “We don’t do our jobs looking to change anybody’s mind about the police. We’re all human, we all have families, we all want to be happy and get along with everybody.”
