Yahoo Lifestyle She got a warning ticket for speeding. It changed her career path.
Alabama state trooper J.T. Brown saw a brown Toyota Tacoma speed by him on a highway, so he pulled the car over.
Behind the wheel was a 20-year-old woman. She was terrified.
“My heart sank, because I had no money and couldn’t pay the ticket,” said Abbie Jo Rutledge, who, at the time, was working for a beverage company as a merchandiser, and was barely getting by financially. She was on the job when she got pulled over that day in August 2022.
Brown could sense Rutledge’s distress.
“She was a young person, and obviously she was super nervous,” he recalled. “I try to make the experience not so stressful, because it is nerve-racking.”
After Brown took down Rutledge’s driver’s license, registration and insurance information, he offered some small talk. He asked her about her career, and she told him she was lost in life.
He spent a few minutes listening to her.
“We sat there and talked,” Brown said.
In their 15-minute conversation, Brown learned that Rutledge had ambitions of becoming a health-care professional, such as a nurse or a surgical technologist, but was putting off schooling to make some money.
Brown - who graduated from the surgical technology program at Bevill State Community College in 2013, though did not pursue a career in health care - encouraged Rutledge to go after her professional goals as soon as she could, and not give up on them.
Then, he made her a deal.
“I told her, ‘If you promise me that you’ll chase it, that you’ll chase your dream and go for it, then I won’t write you a ticket,’” said Brown, who went back to his car and printed out a warning for Rutledge.
Rutledge was stunned. She was expecting a speeding ticket, not life advice.
“That cop pulled me over and was more concerned about my career path instead of my driving habits,” she said.
The two parted ways, and neither expected to cross paths again.
Brown said he often has conversations with people about their challenges, and he offers advice when he can, so the day didn’t particularly stand out to him.
He hoped his words might make a difference in her life, but he had no idea that she would start working toward her professional goals immediately after the traffic stop.
As soon as Rutledge reached her next destination that day, she called her mother - an instructor at Bevill State Community College in Jasper - and told her about her interaction with the officer. Rutledge’s mother - who, they later realized, was one of Brown’s instructors in school - helped her register for the same surgical technology program Brown completed, and she began her studies in August 2023, after taking the basic required courses.
Rutledge kept the warning ticket Brown wrote her in her glove box, and later a keepsake box, as a reminder of the day she decided to make a change in her life.
On Aug. 6, two years after Brown wrote Rutledge the warning, she graduated from the program and fulfilled her promise. In a surprise to Rutledge, Brown attended her graduation ceremony, and presented her with her certificate.
“My mother got a hold of him and invited him,” Rutledge said, adding that she often thought of him and his words of encouragement over the past two years. “I wanted him to see the impact he had on me, and to show him that I took his words to heart.”
Brown said it was an honor for him to be there and witness Rutledge’s success.
“That was probably one of the most humbling times ever in my life,” said Brown, a father of two boys, ages 7 and 3, with another on the way. “I was super, super proud.”
Brown said he and his colleagues regularly aim to support people who are struggling.
“All the guys that I work with and that I’m around on a daily basis are just like me,” he said. “They do the same thing that I’d done that day, they just haven’t gotten recognized for it.”
Brown said he believes traffic stops can be an opportunity to have a positive impact on someone’s life, though he recognizes that there have been many incidents across the country when they have turned violent.
He said he hopes that his experience with Rutledge - which was first reported by the Daily Mountain Eagle - reinforces that not all officers are the same.
“I can be that light to show people, don’t judge all of us because of a few of us,” he said.
Rutledge now works as a surgical technician at UAB Hospital-Highlands in Birmingham.
“I am so proud of myself,” she said. “I’m loving it.”
Rutledge said she hopes to carry Brown’s kindness forward and wants to inspire others to reach their potential.
“Nothing is impossible,” she said.
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