First incident with the police

For the inspiration behind this blog click here.

I thought I'd share my first encounter with the Police before I ask a few friends and colleagues if they have ever had a run in with the law. It would be good to get some input from students I think, I mean do the police still get called out to student parties that have gotten a bit out of control? Maybe I should consider the other angle - do students still have parties that get out of control or are they all sensible and adult now? Maybe its more "in" to have a dinner party? Nah, I don't believe that for a second do you? Will need to do some research amongst the student base in Edinburgh.

You know, I never had an incident with the Police until I was in my mid twenties. I never got pulled over in the car, or had the police round at a student party, nothing like that - does that make me weird or just straight-laced?

Anyway, I was having a house warming party around Easter time a few years ago. David doesn’t like theme parties but I managed to convince him that a theme would be a good idea.

I called it a “Jelly and Smarties” party. I made up whisky, gin and vodka jellies, and had packets of those boxes of smarties around in bowls. I made up sweetie bags for everyone to take away – like those you got at school parties. OK, at this point I will admit that not all the jellies set very well, but we had great fun eating them!

I’d invited people from work as well as our friends. The more the merrier type thing and people were more than welcome to bring their partners if they wanted. So there was a few people that were “partner’s” in the crowd.

About an hour into the party I answered a knock at the door. Standing in front of me was a huge, tall policeman. I was a bit gob-smacked because the party wasn’t even in full swing. "Damn neighbours" went through my head at the time.

The policeman said he was there to raid the place because he had been notified there was drugs in the flat. I was like “drugs? There’s no drugs here!” Oh no, but this was a “jelly and smarties” party according to him, so he wanted to get his hands on the culprits.

I turned scarlet and a bit weak at the knees. Then he caught my eye and started laughing his head off! It was a pure wind-up! He was the husband of one of my work-mates and I didn’t know it (I’d never met him or even knew she was married to a Policeman!). Apparently as soon as he’d seen the invite, he couldn’t resist.

You know, I hadn’t even thought at the time that the theme was controversial. I guess my mind doesn’t work on that wave-length. It turned out that a few people there had wondered about the theme themselves!