A few years ago at my old job, I lived about thirty miles away from where I worked. As I’m sure you can imagine, that was a fairly long drive one way, especially on minimum wage.
One day, I was tasked to work a double shift, and because I didn’t know any better, I accepted under the condition that I didn’t have to work the following day so I could rest. That much I made sure to get in writing. By the time my shifts were done, it was 2:00 am, I had an hour’s drive ahead of me, and I had been awake for thirty-two hours.
About ten miles into my journey home, I realized I was falling asleep at the wheel, regrettably because my tires kept scraping up against the curb of the sidewalks and jolting me awake. In hindsight, given that it was two in the morning, it was lucky that the roads were relatively empty. Still, I made the decision for my own safety to pull into the empty parking lot of a grocery store, park, and take a nap.
Setting an alarm on my phone for two hours, I moved into my passenger seat, tilted it back, and settled in to hopefully be slightly more awake and aware so I could at least get home safely.
My car was jolted at some point, waking me up. In my panic, I thought I was driving again, except I realized I was in my passenger seat. My first thought was to check my phone, which told me that I’d only been asleep for about forty-five minutes. Then, finally, I looked around to figure out what was going on.
There was a body on my hood.
A man — some stranger I didn’t know — was lying sprawled out on the hood of my car, his head turned away from me. For a wild moment, I thought he’d fallen out of the sky, landed on my car, and was dead, but I quickly realized that was silly. For one, there was nothing for him to fall from in the parking lot I was in — I wasn’t close enough to any light poles that he might have claimed up for whatever stupid reason — and he was clearly breathing.
To this day, I don’t know what happened that he decided to get onto my car like that, but he appeared to be either asleep or passed out, and I decided I didn’t want to get out to try and check on him, just in case he reacted violently to being disturbed.
After making sure my car’s doors were all locked, I called the police department. I explained, through my tiredness, the best I could about the situation, describing where I was and why I was there.
I was asked if I was under the influence at least three times. Finally, I was told a cruiser was on its way. Twenty minutes later, with the sleeping man shifting on my hood a few times enough to make my car rock, a police officer did indeed arrive. I waved at him and his partner through my window, which I cracked open to whisper through it.
Officer #1: “What are you doing out here?”
Me: “Taking a short nap. I’ve been awake for over thirty hours, and—”
Officer #1: *Pointing at the sleeping man* “Who is that?”
Me: “I don’t know. As far as I know, he just jumped on my hood.”
Officer #1: “Did you hit him?”
Me: *Confused* “No, I’ve been parked for almost an hour. He woke me up when he landed on my hood.”
Officer #1: *Getting visibly frustrated* “Why did you call 911 if you didn’t hit him?”
Me: “Because I don’t know if he’s having some sort of medical emergency.”
Officer #1: “You could have just checked him yourself and not wasted our time.”
Me: “…Why?”
Officer #1: “Excuse me?!”
He leaned back from me. Neither he nor his partner had even gone in the direction of the sleeping man. [Officer #1] spoke into his radio, looking angry. I didn’t catch what was said, mostly because my window was still mostly up, but I could only assume he was calling for backup.
At that point, I rolled my window all the way down.
Me: “Sir, could you at least check if the guy is okay?” *Points at the sleeping man*
The officer looked at the sleeping man and then at me, and I could see his face change. He took out his flashlight and shone it at me and then at the sleeping man, and then, suddenly, he switched from interrogation to helpful.
Officer #1: “Yeah, just sit tight. [Officer #2], get on the man’s other side, just in case.”
At the time, I was baffled by this sudden change in attitude but also too tired to care much, as the two cops tried to rouse the sleeping man, who predictably lashed out upon being woken up but calmed immediately and became very apologetic once he realized what was going on.
The sleeping man even apologized to me as he stood up and stumbled away, or at least tried to. The officers had to physically hold him up since it seemed his legs weren’t working properly. Once the man had sat down, the first officer approached me.
Officer #1: “We’re going to take him down to the station.”
Me: “…Okay.”
Officer #1: “He says he just laid down on your car because he was tired.”
Me: *Pauses* “Sure.”
There was silence between us for a few seconds.
Me: “Did you need anything else from me?”
Officer #1: “…No, I guess I don’t.”
He walked away back to the man and then helped him up to take him to the cruiser.
At that point, I just rolled my window back up and assumed that if they figured out what else they needed me for, they’d let me know. A few minutes later, they drove off, leaving me alone, and I eventually fell back asleep for the rest of my nap.
I drove home without further incident, and because I was never asked for my ID, name, or number, I never got contacted about that incident again.
I can only speculate, but I have to wonder if the reason the first officer was so hostile toward me and had a sudden change of heart was that he didn’t realize I was a white guy until I rolled my window down. I guess at this point, I’ll never truly know the real answer to any question brought up that night.
