Just leave it on the ground and back away slowly....

For the past three years my husband and I have taken hot chocolate and cookies to the local fire department on Christmas Eve. You might think we are one those "couples" that do cutesy things together. Not so. I'm just paranoid that I don't have enough money in my "karma" bank at any given time and this always seems like a pretty good deposit.

This year we moved to a new city and wanted to support the local fire department here. I made a big basket of snacks and got some of those cute "baby-size" bottles of Coke. As I was putting this little bundle of karma together, I thought that it might be better if we supported our local police department. Its a real small community and while we would like to think the neighborhood we moved into was safer....there is some riff-raff here and there. Plus we've already called the police twice in one month for scary dogs running loose in the neighborhood. We figured we owed them a little.

My husband and I piled into the car with all the offerings and headed to the police station.

In the movies and television, they always show the police station with a big burly police officer sitting at a tall desk when you walk in. They often lean over and say "What can we help you with missy?" or " Officer Friendly here, how can I help you?". So we were expecting something similar.

We walked up to the entrance marked Police Station. On the door there was a sign that said "Please press the intercom button after 5 pm for the police department". I looked at my husband and pushed the button.

Nothing happened. We both saw the security camera and stood up straighter, lest they think they were going to be dealing with two hunchbacks.

I pushed the button again.

A staticky voice came on.
"Police Department......use the intercom"

My husband and I looked at each other.

"Uh....we have some....uh...snacks here for the department for Christmas"

"Okay...hold on a moment"

We both stood up straight again. The intercom clicked on again.

"Uh...yeah....I'm the only one at the desk right now....all officers are patrolling. You can leave the package at the door on the ground."

"Oh...okay...uh...alright......Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas....static,static....."

We looked at each other again. And then while we slowly placed the basket o'snacks and the pack o' Coke on the ground by the outside ashtray, we made sure we looked at the camera again and smiled.

As we walked back to the car somewhat letdown, we both couldn't help but think that the police department would indeed enjoy those snacks.....after the bomb squad probably checked them out.

Hey.....its still counts as a deposit into the karma bank. Just more like a wire transfer.