For many folks, the most common encounter they’ll have with a cop is being pulled over as they’re driving. If you’re lucky, you’ll get off with just a warning and you can go on about your day; but more often than not, it ends up costing you some money.

But every now and then, some other thing will happen. The cop and the driver being pulled over will have some weird and unexpected connection with one another. When one cop made a routine traffic stop, it would turn out to be a truly one-in-a-million encounter…

Featured photo credit: www.time.com

Minor Violation

On an afternoon in June, a New Jersey State Trooper was out in his squad car patrolling the streets when he noticed a vehicle with a minor violation. When he turned on his lights and gave the siren a tap, the car slowed down and came to a stop at the first opportunity by the side of the road.

License Please

Trooper Patterson approached the vehicle and asked for the driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance as he’d done a thousand times before. When the driver, an older man, handed over an additional bit of ID, the mood shifted a bit…

Piscataway?

“Oh, Piscataway PD?” Trooper Patterson said. The driver had handed him a police ID card, though it was somewhat out of date. As the driver, a man named Matthew explained that he was a retired cop, the 2 men began to talk about their commonalities.

My Hometown

It turned out that Trooper Patterson had grown up in Piscataway and the 2 of them talked about some of the police officers that they knew in common. As the chat continued, Matthew asked the trooper “What street did you live on?” That’s when the conversation took an odd turn…

Poe Place

“Poe Place,” Patterson replied. Poe Place was a street that always stuck out in Matthew’s memory. He told Trooper Patterson about a 911 call he responded to nearly 30 years ago, just 4 years into his law enforcement career that took place there.

Memorable Call

The call was for a woman whose water broke as she was in the parking lot, leaving the nearby grocery store. She raced home with her legs clamped tight, and when she arrived her husband carried her inside and called 911. Matthew was one of the first people to show up on the scene…

Emergency Delivery

There was no time for the ambulance to arrive so officer Bailly helped deliver the woman’s baby as he received instructions over the phone from the woman’s doctor. The umbilical cord was wrapped around the little baby’s neck and the boy’s father gently lifted it off of his neck but there were otherwise no complications.

Heard It Before

As he was hearing the story, Trooper Michael Patterson got more and more excited. He’d heard that story a bunch of times, every year on his birthday, in fact. As soon as Matthew finished, the trooper blurted out “That was me!”…

No Way

“Get the hell out of here,” Matthew said in complete disbelief. He thought the trooper had to be pulling his leg. After all, what were the odds that this was the same baby he’d held in his hands so many years ago? “In the blue house? The colonial?” he asked.

Thank You

Michael was absolutely sure of it. “That was me. That was me,” he repeated with a huge smile on his face. He extended his hand inside the car and said “Thank you for delivering me.”…

You Won’t Believe This

The two men talked for a few more minutes, and after marveling at the coincidence, they parted ways. Trooper Patterson, of course, didn’t give Matthew a ticket for the infraction. They each excitedly called their wives to tell them about the encounter.

Picture?

Both women were wowed by the chance encounter but still level-headed enough to ask an important question: did you take a picture? In their excitement, neither man had thought to document the encounter or even exchange contact information…

Dropping By

But luckily, due to the way they’d run into each other, there was an easy way for them to get in touch. Michael knew Bailly’s address from the traffic stop so he went by his house and left a note in the mailbox.

Emotional Encounter

Matthew responded to the note as soon as he got it and invited Michael to come by. He, of course, accepted the invitation and brought his mother Karen along as well. “There were a couple of tears shed perhaps by my wife and his mom,” Matthew said…

My First Kid

As they reminisced about the event that had brought them all together so many years ago, Matthew revealed that when he’d helped deliver Michael, he didn’t have any kids of his own yet. It was the first time he’d ever seen a baby be born.

Again And Again

It had been a monumental moment for him. Just like Karen, the story of Michael’s birth is one that Matthew had been telling people countless times to anyone who would listen in the nearly 27 years since it happened.

New Friend

This time when they met up, they were sure to take plenty of pictures of the 2 men together. They also made plans to go hang out again, going out for pizza and other such things. Their chance second meeting had led to a new friendship.

For Old Time’s Sake

The two had plenty to talk about, of course, both being in law enforcement. They were also soon going to be able to talk about being fathers, as Michael’s wife Alison was due to give birth in a few weeks. They joked that Matthew might help deliver that baby too…

What Are The Odds

The state police released a statement about the 2 men meeting, saying “We’re not sure what the odds are of this happening — maybe they’re close to the odds of a hole-in-one, winning the lottery, or being struck by lightning — but it happened,” on their Facebook account.

Unique Chance

“As a police officer, you don’t always get a chance to have a moment like this with people you once helped in your career,” the post continued. To have the opportunity to not only meet up with but befriend someone you helped bring into the world and to find out that he too became a cop in truly a special thing.