NJ Trooper Michael Patterson meets the man who brought him into the world
The New Jersey State Police tell the story;
On Friday, June 1, Trooper Michael Patterson stopped Matthew Bailly for a minor motor vehicle violation in Kingwood Township. During the initial conversation, Mr. Bailly told Trooper Patterson that he was a retired Piscataway police officer. Trooper Patterson, being a Piscataway native, told Mr. Bailly that he is from the same town. Now here’s where things get interesting…
Mr. Bailly asked Trooper Patterson where he used to live. When Trooper Patterson told him that he grew up on Poe Place, Mr. Bailly said that he remembered that street, because he helped deliver a baby there 27 years ago when he was a rookie cop. He was even able to describe the color, style of house, and the baby’s name, Michael.
Trooper Patterson extended his hand and replied, “My name is Michael Patterson, sir. Thank you for delivering me.”
[…]
So, Trooper Patterson and his mother visited Mr. Bailly and his wife at their home where they took these photos! They all felt this story was so uplifting, it needed to be shared, and we agree! After all, 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 article doen’t say whether Patterson ticketed Bailly.
Category: Police
Great story.
Terrific story.
Great story. What are the odds of such a unique and happy reunion?
The odds change every minute (what with births, deaths, and other factors), but roughly 327,589,916 to 1./smile
Times the number of LEOs writing traffic tickets at any given moment…
Well, yeah, but how did you come up a total N of 327,589,917? 🙂
Current estimated US population (both legal and illegal) plus the number of dead Democrap voters in Chicago./s
Aha, I should have guessed!
Population+25% probably would have gotten the same result.
Liars, damn liars, and statisticians.
*grin*
Awesome story…
Actually, I read the story on a different site and it said that he was only given a warning for an equipment violation.
As a retired Leo here in the Great Garden State, I can tell you that there is no love lost between locals and the N J State Primadon..er Police. Lucky it was only a warning..
BCD. I agree. NJ State Police are notorious…what’s the word…assholes. Yeah, that’s it.
Not to open a can of worms, but most state police/highway patrol officers are notorious assholes. They pick them that way and they eat their young. Most would write their own mother a ticket. Road pirates and revenue generators to makeup for budgetary shortfalls are what they have become. When I see the highway patrol with a pulled over motorist, my only thought is, “That poor bastard, they’ll get points on their record and their insurance will increase.” When I see the highway patrol, I feel neither protected nor served.
I believe the Virginia State Police Academy surgically removes any traces of a sense of humor from all its graduates. Florida Highway Patrol, I think, does something a little more “Pavlovian”…
You’re not opening a can of worms. As a rule, urban PDs despise the state police, who think their shit doesn’t stink. State police academies are very good at producing machines clothed in starched uniforms and highly polished shoes and they protect their own very, very well.
In my experience, for the most part, Alaska State Troopers are pretty cool. For the most part Indiana State Troopers (my older brother was one) are assholes. My brother used to pull me over when I was on my way to school and also got one of his buddies to pull me over during my driving test. Lucky for me the driving tester had a sense of humor.
Alaska is a world all its own and the troopers there might have back-up 300 miles away at times, I would guess. Consequently, they had better not be assholes.
Hmmm, I wonder if we had the same driver’s tester. I tested in Winamac in 1966, I wonder if he was still on the job when you took yours?
66 – Wasn’t that our county plate designator before the change-out?
I believe it changed around the same time that our area code went from 219 to 574. I still remember the old jingle that sang “whether your area code is 812, 317 or 219” but I can’t remember what it was for though
Wow, it’s funny how you meet people like that out in the wild. I got to talking to a lady down in Central America at a dive resort several years ago and it turns out she was from a few towns over from me in NH and was my bosses divorce lawyer.
When I was in the military I ran across several of these random things. I was getting my shots on Bragg for a trip south and a nurse walked into the room. “Frankie”? says I? “Damn, Jon I thought your name looked familiar but I never thought it could be you in a million years.” Girl I went to high school with.
I went into a grocery store in Fayettenam one night to get some beer with fellow soldiers and the girl behind the counter looked familiar.
“Lisa”?
“Your xxxxxx’s brother, right”?
1,000 miles from home and there she was
When I started college a professor opened up class asking where we each from, when graduated, etc. He then played ‘do-you-know’ with each of us, and was successful with each. I was the first person to go to that school from mine in 35 years, so I was pretty cocky – until he informs me that he and my father were roommates in 1934 or so.
In the Army, I met a fellow and we hit it off. Turned out he was born the same day, month, and year I was and the name of his town and mine, although in different states, was the same. Crazy.
Life is full of surprises.
Sat next to an Army Doctor on a 8 hour flight. Small talk led to both of us discovering we were Army brats. That discussion led to where we lived as dependents as well as our birthplace. Turns out we were both born in the same Military hospital. Then that discussion led to our date of birth. And yes, we were both born the same day, month AND year in the same military hospital.
We could not believe it. We both showed one other our ID cards to prove our DOB. We were stunned.
And no, we were not twins separated at birth. And yes, the story is true and could be unbelievable. But when I read your story, 2/17 Air Cav, I just had to share mine. Yep…crazy..what are the chances of THAT happening?🤔
How about the chances of two people at TAH having a near-identical true story? Crazy to the 3rd power.
Well. If ya wanna really try out that theory, try this on for size.
Was at a conference some years ago and connected with a guy whose civilian interests paralleled mine. As we talked about this and that over dinner, the similarities began to seem more than a bit odd. Yep, we were both military brats, both belonged to military reserve units and discovered that we were born on the same day within minutes of each other, but not on the same continent but neither in the US.
Believe it or not, but it actually is the truth.
First boat, 1990.
Doing a drill, new guy sucking rubber (EAB mask, service air supply.) Last name and face looked familiar.
You graduated HS in 19xx? Answers affirmative. You from New Mexico? Also affirmative.
Went to school with him. I was 2 years ahead.
Talk about small world.
I’ve had several of these experiences:
Completing two weeks of calling on military bases in Germany in the 80’s, I sat down in the bar of the Sheraton at Rhein-Main next to an oil company exec from Los Angeles headed to Dubai. Took ten minutes to learn that not only was he the controller for the same oil company, Santa Fe, that employed my father-in-law in Venezuela, but that very morning he and his secretary had been looking for may father-in-law’s missing paycheck. Triangulate those odds
In 1966 I was at the hospital at Kishine Barracks in Japan. Going through the chow line, I heard a familiar voice giving instructions to the servers. I looked up and there was my high school sweetheart (Got her cherry) a captain serving as the hospital dietician. And no, we did not rekindle the relationship, fraternization and all that.
In the mid-70’s my in-laws were driving across the long empty spaces of eastern New Mexico when the saw a fellow broken down beside the road. As they slowed, the recognized him as my best friend from my college years in El Paso.
may=my
One I forgot: back in the 80’s while living in Florida was headed for Laughlin AFB in Del Rio. Topped a hill west of Hondo going balls to the wall and met a Texas State Trooper head on. He went on over the hill but I knew he had me so I pulled over, got out and was standing by the rear fender with my license and registration in hand when he came blasting back over the crest of the hill in full chase mode. He skidded to a stop behind me and was actually laughing when he got out. His last name was the same as mine, by the way. He let me skate because he didn’t have to chase me down, he said.
Fast forward fifteen years, after I’d retired. Same sort of situation out in Bandera County, I pull over. Trooper turns around, turns on flashers so I’ve already pulled over when he comes over hill. Same trooper-same result after I told him about the previous incident which he didn’t remember.
Years ago when I was stationed at Ft Wainwright, Alaska I was sitting on a promotion board. We asked one of the Soldiers where he was from and he replied that he was from my Podunk one stoplight hometown. After a few more questions it turns out that my brother was his high school wrestling coach.
I always do the “do you know…” whenever I meet people from places I know people from. A couple years ago, my wife and I went to Orange County CA to visit her daughter who lives there. We were camping at Oniell Park (because I am cheapskate and her Daughter’s place was too small). She tells us that a church friend of her’s has a guest house and would like for us to stay there and feed her horses while she and her family went on a trip. We went to meet her, and she showed us around the guesthouse, and told me I should talk to her husband about the remote for the tv. He asked me where I was from, and I told him,”Texas” and asked where he was from. He said he was from South Africa. I told him I had a cousin that traveled to South Africa in 1960 from Switzerland, and that he broke down in the Sahara with his vw bus. I told him that I was going to visit his twin brother that lived in San Juan Capistrano. He tells me that he has an uncle with the exact same story about driving to South Africa from Switzerland in 1960 and breaking down. He even has a twin brother. He said,”my uncle Eric”. I said his last name, and the guy looked at me incredulously, and asked who I was. His Mother’s sister was Eric’s ex wife. I am always meeting people like that. I almost got in a fight with some young MM on the Sara that turned out to be a nephew of two crazy ass brothers that I used to run around with in Ridgely West Virginia. It truly is a small world.
I grew up in the town next to Piscataway, South Plainfield , I know where Poe Pl is.
More New Jersey cops in the news.
New Jersey police rescue wandering pig, name him ‘Pork Roll’
Fox News Link
See, this is what happens when bacon seeds hit puberty and are allowed to stay out past curfew.
Twice in my career I met someone who graduated from the same high school I did, albeit different years. One in Arizona and one in Korea. I also met and dated in Arizona a woman who grew up a couple miles from my home. We had several friends in common.
After a day of jumping out of towers at Benning, I got into a cab in the early nineties in Columbus, Georgia. It was me and a couple of friends. The driver, a black fellah, started asking where we were all from. “Chicago,” I said. Turns out he’d grown up there. He asked what school I’d been to and after telling him I returned the question. He said he’d gone to Marshall HS and I said, “Really? My mother went there.” He actually gave me a doubtful look in the rearview mirror upon hearing it.
This surprised him as the school had been almost entirely African-American when he attended and I’m white. He asked when she graduated and I told him. He then smiled and asked, “Marianne? Was your mother Marianne?” It was my turn to smile as I asked, “How’d you guess?”
As for whether or not he got a ticket, I hope he threw the book at him \sarc.