Run-in With the Po-Po

The other night, I answered the phone to hear a police officer ask for me by name. Since hubby had left to go over to his parents' house to watch football, I automatically assumed that he had been in an accident. I was relieved to find out that that was not the case, then pissed off to find out that the call was to solicit money.

Telemarketers bug me. They really bug me, even when they are working on the behalf of a charity. In fact, if an organization sics telemarketers on me to solicit money, it's very likely that I won't donate any. There are many organizations that are worthy of donations that don't irritate me.

Anyway, the caller assured me that he was a real police officer, and local. However, he didn't confirm his location, so I'm not sure he was calling for a local charity. The charity he described sounded good--raising money for families of officers killed in the line of duty in traffic-related deaths. Except...it was supposed to be for local families. I'm cynical, so I wasn't moved by his plea. I mean, how many can there possibly be? If there were an epidemic of police officers killed in traffic-related accidents in my area, wouldn't there be huge news stories about it?

So, Officer Telemarketer was continuing his spiel, trying to get me to pledge $100.00. I reminded him that there are many other charities asking for money, especially this time of year, and told him that I might consider $10.00 if he sent me some more information to look over. Well, apparently a $10.00 donation isn't worth his time. He said that he would really like to send me a pledge card for a $100.00 pledge. That's when I got mean. I replied that I would really like to send him my kiddo's fundraiser information and that she would really appreciate a donation of $100.00 from him. We agreed that he would send me a pledge card for $15.00 and it would be OK if I only sent in $10.00. How kind of him.

Later, while talking to my mom, I mentioned this phone call to her and she said that I shouldn't send in anything at all, except maybe a note explaining why. LOL. That's mean! I guess I take after my mom!