KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Cops. They’re tough. They throw down bad guys, holster weapons and can make you pull your car over with just the flash of their lights.
They can also be comedians. Sometimes at their own expense — like this Kansas City, Mo., police officer.
His name is Pepper Walker. (That’s not a nickname.) His job is like that of any other cop. Protect and serve.
Walker was doing just that on May 2 after a storm passed through Kansas City. The storm blew down a large tree branch that blocked the road. Walker, a strapping young man, hopped out of his patrol car with every intention of moving it himself — with no help.
He underestimated the tree. Or himself. Probably both.
As he pulled the branch, it bent and bowed — until it snapped, sending Officer Walker stumbling backward on the wet pavement and into the ditch.
“It shot me across the road like a sling shot,” Walker said.
Everyone who’s ever been given a speeding ticket by Walker can laugh. Go ahead. It’s funny.
What’s more — and luckily for us — it was all caught on his cruiser’s dash cam. But he didn’t know that at first.
“When I got back in the car, I told Tyler, ‘Man, I’m so glad that wasn’t on video.'”
But Walker’s partner, Tyler White, had a few tricks up his sleeve. He hit the record button afterward. Some fancy trick with police equipment captures and records the previous five minutes, catching Walker’s clumsy fumble on camera.
Officer White sent the video to as many people as he could think of. It was uploaded to YouTube where it has received 17,000 hits and counting. But the brightest spotlight came when the Tonight Show with Jay Leno aired his video Wednesday night.
“It was kind of funny seeing myself on national TV,” Walker said.
Walker is taking it all in stride, laughing at himself but vowing next time to use a chainsaw. Or call Public Works.
