Mom Thanks Cop Who Arrested Her Daughter on Spring Break
Following her daughter’s arrest for underage drinking on a beach during spring break, a mother has reached out to the Florida police department who did the handcuffing — to say a heartfelt thank you.
“In this day, ‘cops’ are getting a bad rap. So, I wanted to say ‘thank you,’” an unidentified mom wrote to the Walton County Sheriff department in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., which shared her words on the police department’s Facebook page. “Yesterday, my daughter was one of the thousands of spoiled spring breakers ‘living it up’ on the beach. She got arrested for underage drinking. She was holding a can of beer on the beach. A stupid move that I warned her about before she left, but I’m just her mother, so ‘in one ear and out the other.’ The arrest scared the HELL out of her and I’m hoping she learned her lesson.”
In the letter, posted on Mar. 16 which was then shared more than 730 times and elicited nearly 3,000 responses, she continued, “The reason that I am sending this is that every officer that I talked to or that I could hear in the background talking to her was so nice! Firm, but nice. I’m sure each one was rolling their eyes when my daughter said ‘Can you talk to my mom?’ but each and every officer was respectful and assured me she would get back to her house safely.”
The mom, who was “hundreds of miles away,” found it very reassuring. “I know you all have to deal with this on a daily basis, which must be completely annoying and I’m very sorry my daughter added to your workload yesterday,” she wrote. “They say you always have one child that makes you go grey early and she is mine! Thank you for saving me a few more grey hairs last night.”
Walton County Sheriff public information officer Corey Dobridnia tells Yahoo Beauty that the department was very happy to receive the thanks.
“Kudos to the mom, because it’s not every day you get compliments. We love it,” Dobridnia says. “These guys are working overtime on spring break.” She adds that the arresting officer, Dep. Wesley Barnhill, was “super-stoked” about the feedback.
“Our policy is if you’re caught drinking underage, you’re arrested, you’re booked, and you’re driven to jail,” Dobridnia explains. “We are within 50 miles of [spring break HQ] Panama City, and we don’t want this to get out of control, so that’s been our policy forever… This is a very family-oriented beach. We’re not out to embarrass the kids, we just want to teach them a valuable lesson.”
It’s that aim that seemed to most please the mom who wrote the letter — as well as many of the hundreds of Facebook commenters who had something to say about it.
“I applaud you for making your child be held accountable for what she has done! It is the hardest thing we can do for our near adult children!” wrote one woman. Noted another, “Now that is a good & smart Mom & I hope her daughter has learned her lesson! Great work for all our Walton Co. deputies!! You are appreciated!”
Another said, “Loved the letter. So nice to hear a mother be honest about their ‘wild child’ and not to blame anyone but her for making a bad choice.”
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