![\"street-smarts\"](\"https:\/\/hcsblogdotorg.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/06\/street-smarts.jpg\")
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This story was relayed to me by a friend and fellow police officer (who will remain anonymous).\u00a0 He told me about a traffic stop he recently conducted where the driver\u2019s actions almost led to fatal consequences.\u00a0 He wanted armed citizens everywhere to know about what happened and learn from the actions of the man he stopped.<\/p>\n
My officer friend recently conducted an evening traffic stop on a busy highway.\u00a0 When he approached the car, he saw that the driver was extremely nervous, with shaking hands and a trembling voice.\u00a0 The man was sitting in his seat at an odd angle.<\/p>\n
The officer got the man\u2019s driver\u2019s license and asked him a few questions.\u00a0 He asked the man for the vehicle registration and insurance card.\u00a0 As the man leaned forward to get the requested items, the officer saw a hidden object that was wedged between the man\u2019s back and the car seat.\u00a0 When the officer said \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d<\/em> the man suddenly leaned back so that the object was hidden again.<\/p>\n The officer told the driver not to move and reached inside the car to grab the hidden object.\u00a0 Suddenly the driver leaned forward again and attempted to grab the item himself.\u00a0 It turned out to be a hatchet tomahawk.<\/p>\n The officer beat the driver to the grab while simultaneously reaching for his gun and ordering the driver to stop moving.\u00a0 The driver recognized what was happening, stopped moving, and let go of the hatchet.\u00a0 The officer removed the hatchet and secured it.<\/p>\n The officer told me: \u201cThere were a couple of things that could be happening.\u00a0 One was that this guy is a criminal dirtbag who was trying to hit a cop with a tomahawk.\u00a0 The other\u00a0 is that it could be a normal guy like you and I train with who was carrying a weapon for protection and panicked when he got stopped by a cop.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The officer talked to the man for awhile and ran his criminal record.\u00a0 It turned out to be option number two.\u00a0 The man had never been arrested before.\u00a0 He had been carrying the tomahawk for personal protection and he didn\u2019t know if it was legal or not.\u00a0 He panicked when he got stopped and tried to hide the tomahawk so he wouldn\u2019t be arrested.<\/p>\n The officer secured the tomahawk in the man\u2019s trunk (where it can be legally carried) and let him go with a warning.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n