Today was a morning of hiking Kennesaw Mountain (again - I was atop this gem about a month ago) and then visiting the CNN Center for Dunkin Donuts coffee (they had soy milk). Later I was handcuffed by Atlanta police.
We were walking around and an administrative-looking police officer strolled up and asked if I’d be a “good sport.” When I saw the two uniformed police officers behind her I joked, “oh yea, of course!”
Turns out they needed a “staged shot” for an “internal-use only” Powerpoint presentation. I asked if this was for some prank show, as TBS / Adult Swim are in the Atlanta area. Maybe Conan was involved. But she assured me it was legit. And they had ID badges and guns, so I said yes.
I put my hands on the police cruiser and a male officer cuffed me. I’ve never been arrested before, so the feeling was weird. He then patted me down and said something to the effect of, “even if were to find something on you we wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.”
I joked, “Wow, I visit Atlanta and get fake-arrested.”
“Yep,” he replied, “come to Atlanta and lose all your civil rights.”
Afterwards we shook hands and laughed it up. Good folks.
I’ve been on the road for over seven months and been behind the scenes at a half-marathon, rode with 300+ people in Austin, TX, met dudes from bands I like, climbed mountains, quit my job, and (as of today) been fake-arrested.
As Gwen Bell tweeted today, “You have to be fucking fierce with your life. Nobody else will do that for you.” Shit yes — I’m flying to NYC tomorrow.
