A routine speeding stop on the side of an Alabama highway changed two lives for the better when a 20-year-old driver followed the advice of a compassionate police officer.
Abbie Rutledge felt her heart sink when she saw flashing blue lights behind her 10-year-old Toyota as she hurried down Highway 78 one August morning in 2022.
The 20-year-old told state trooper JT Brown she couldn’t pay the fine because she was “broke and in a dead-end job.”
Fifteen minutes later, the couple agreed to let her go with a warning after she promised to pursue her latent ambition of becoming a nurse.
And exactly two years later, he was in the audience when she graduated with a degree in surgical technology from Bevill State Community College.
“I think it was the right person, the right time and the right words that were said,” he said. CBS.
Abbie Rutledge felt her heart sink when she saw flashing blue lights behind her 10-year-old Toyota as she hurried down Highway 78 one August morning in 2022.
Alabama State Trooper JT Brown was the one who stopped her.
The former Jasper cheerleader may have been speeding, but she wasn’t going anywhere fast when she crossed paths with Brown outside Birmingham.
Working full-time as a driver for Coca Cola, she was “still struggling to decide what she wanted to do with her career,” according to her mother, Tammy Guthrie.
“He challenged her to find a career and work toward it,” she added. “As they talked, she realized Officer Brown had completed the Surgical Technician Program at Bevill State in 2013.”
As he prepared to let her go, he handed her a warning and wrote on it, “Promise me you’ll go to nursing school and slow down, and I won’t fine you.”
And Abbie decided to take the advice to heart.
“I was so excited when he called me to tell me about the ticket,” his mother wrote on Facebook. “All I could think about was speeding!”
“She said, ‘Mom, he talked to me for 10 or 15 minutes on the side of the road and I’m going to put this warning ticket in my glove compartment and I’m going to invite him to my graduation. Because I go to school.
‘He did something in 10 to 15 minutes that I had been struggling to help her do for 20 years!’
Twelve months later, Abbie began taking classes at Bevill State, and last month she started working as a scrub nurse at UAB Highlands Hospital in Birmingham.
“Officer Brown was polite and courteous,” he said. Rick Karle
‘He saw me in my Coca-Cola uniform and asked me about my career.
“He asked me if I had any dreams for my future and I said yes. He told me that if I promised to pursue my dream, he would forgive me with one warning.”
“As soon as he left and as soon as I got to where I wanted to go, I started working hard to pursue that career. And now here I am.”
Two years to the day of the traffic stop, Officer Brown was in the audience to watch Abbie graduate as a certified surgical technologist from Bevill State Community College.
She showed him the ticket he had written and that she had kept in the glove compartment since the stop.
Mom Tammy Guthrie, center, said Brown “did something in 10 to 15 minutes that I’d been struggling to help her do for 20 years.”
Newly qualified OR nurse says she’s thrilled with her first job at UAB Highlands
Abbie says she is thrilled with her new job and was delighted to see Brown in the audience when she received her certificate on stage.
“I wanted him to see the impression he made on me,” he explained.
‘Five minutes of conversation with someone, even if you don’t know them, can have the biggest impact on their life. You never know when it might happen.’
Brown has also reflected on the unexpectedly powerful outcome of a routine traffic stop.
“I just like helping people. I talk to most of the people I stop and encourage them,” he said.
‘If I can help people and show them that God is good, it’s a win for both of us.
“She made my whole career worthwhile.”
