This officer was walking his daily route when he came across something that would cause his day to take a sudden turn. During an inspection, he saw that a woman had a coffin in her trunk. And when he asked her to open it, something he would have never imagined happened.
Ben was an officer and was walking his daily route around the block. He was enjoying his walk as it was a warm and sunny day. A parked van captured his attention. It was parked on the grass between some bushes and trees. Ben looked around for some sign of activity, but no one was around. Ben decided to look closer, not knowing his day would take a surprising turn.
He approached the van from the side, so he changed direction. Ben was surprised to find out the driver was a woman who was heavily startled by his sudden appearance. Ben asked her to roll down the window and hand over her registration. He couldn’t help but notice her handshake when she handed over the documents. But the woman ignored him and didn’t move a muscle, raising his suspicion.
His eyes rested on something that lay in the back of the van. There was no mistaking it. It was a coffin. The woman didn’t react and sheepishly stared through the front window like he wasn’t there. He opened the driver’s door and demanded her to come out of the vehicle and follow him to the back. After ensuring nobody was around, he asked her to open the coffin.
He quickly opened it but was shocked when he looked inside. The casket was completely empty. He wanted to berate the woman with questions but couldn’t. He was speechless. Ben looked at the woman with a puzzled look, but to his surprise, she wasn’t interested in the coffin and was looking around again, contemplating what to do.
He stepped inside the van to take a closer look. What was going on? Why was this woman suddenly crying? Did she think he found something that would send her to jail? What was she hiding? This sudden outburst made the woman even more suspicious as she had been acting strange since he arrived. It was time for answers, but he couldn’t have predicted what those answers would be.
For the first time, Ben heard the woman talk. He heard a tremble in her voice as she started to speak. “I don’t want to do this,” Ben had to focus on hearing what she was saying, but it blew him away when he realized what she was saying. The woman had just claimed she didn’t want to be here and was pressured into it. “What do you mean?” Stephanie had been extremely nervous and worried ever since the police officer had arrived. She hadn’t signed up for this. What was she going to do?
Eventually, she couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst into tears. She had to come clean. “They threatened me and my daughter. I had to do this.” He hadn’t expected her to say anything like that. So she started to tell her story.
Yesterday, Stephanie bumped into dangerous-looking people who knew a lot about her and her daughter. When she entered her van in the morning, she found a note with instructions. And when she looked in the back, she saw the coffin. The message told her to be in this location to pick something up. And with the note came a warning: a picture of Stephanie dropping off her daughter at daycare.
Then a sudden realization kicked in. What if the dangerous-looking man saw her talking to the officer? She left the coffin area without saying anything and ran toward the driver’s seat. The officer could not let her go and ran after her. “What are you doing?” he asked. Stephanie was holding back tears and started yelling, “What if they saw us talking? My daughter isn’t safe. You have to help me, please.”
Ben looked at the desperate woman behind the wheel and instinctively knew she had been telling the truth. While making his way to the passenger’s side, he scanned the surroundings for any movement or indication of other people and saw nothing. They drove to the daycare as fast as they could. Stephanie was determined to get her daughter to safety, and Ben was determined to get to the bottom of this.
Stephanie was so panicked she forgot she had a police officer in her van multiple times, and he had to warn her not to break traffic rules. When they entered the daycare, Stephanie started screaming her daughter’s name. “Lizzy, where are you?” There was no response, and an ominous feeling grew inside Ben’s body.
Then suddenly, a blonde girl shot toward her. Stephanie fell to her knees and embraced her daughter. She was relieved, but Ben told her they weren’t safe yet. He was glad they found her daughter, but it didn’t mean they were out of the woods yet. Now that Stephanie wasn’t at the pickup point anymore, the criminals were undoubtedly looking for her and her daughter.
He had to find out who they were and arrest them to ensure Stephanie and her daughter’s safety. To achieve this, he asked them to join him at the station. Stephanie could press charges there, and Ben would be sure they were safe. He noticed that she hesitated, so Ben told her he had put his faith in her, so now it was her turn to put faith in him.
While entering the police station, she answered the call. Her face immediately went dark, and she alarmed Ben. “How did they get my number?” Stephanie whispered. Ben took the phone from Stephanie and put it on speaker. “I saw you with that police officer. That was a mistake. We know where to find you,” a distorted voice said.
It looked as if all of Stephanie’s hope had faded, but Ben kept his hopes up. “Leave me alone,” Stephanie suddenly screamed as she tried to take back her phone. Ben managed to keep her from ending the call as he had just thought of something. He tried to calm Stephanie down without making a sound as he didn’t want to alert the criminals on the phone.
He was there. Ben had just realized this phone call could help them catch these people. They would be able to pinpoint the location the person was calling from if they stayed on the call for long enough. Meanwhile, The Voice had responded again, but neither had heard what he said. “What?” Stephanie asked to their surprise. This worked as the person repeated what he had said as quickly as possible.
They made their way over to the tech department while Stephanie tried her best to keep the person on the call. She begged and pleaded, hoping they would leave her and her daughter alone. Her tactics had worked as the person didn’t hang up the call, which gave the tech department more than enough time to pinpoint their location.
Ben complimented her excellent work, wrote down the place, and went on his way. Ben was the first one to arrive and scan the surroundings. It was a big warehouse at the harbor. Moments later, the police force had set up a perimeter covering every possible exit route out of the building. When everyone was ready, Ben took the lead and approached the building.
He silently checked the doors and made his way around. When he was almost finished with his round, he saw a window he could access via a container. He climbed on top of it and peeked inside, curious about what he might see. The building was
filled with big wooden crates that were shipped in containers. A group of seven men stood around an open crate in the middle. Inside was a coffin, which they had opened and were stuffing inside.
“So that’s what they used the coffin for. They were smuggling things out of the country,” having seen enough, Ben notified the police force and got everyone ready. On his count, they entered the warehouse and surprised the criminals inside. It didn’t take long for them to surrender and get arrested.
It all went over quickly and without a problem until Ben saw movement in the back. All seven men were arrested and prosecuted for smuggling illegal goods and threatening people into smuggling for them. After it was all over, he stayed in touch with Stephanie, who tried to get her life back.
She had thanked him more times than he could remember, and he was happy he was able to help them. But he couldn’t help but notice she was still struggling. As it turned out, Stephanie struggled with anxiety ever since she was threatened. Even though the people had been caught, Ben felt bad for her but understood it had greatly affected her mental health.
He offered his support, and together they would visit a therapist who helped her to get back to her old self. After a while, she fully recovered, and Stephanie could fully enjoy her life again with her daughter. Months later, Ben was awarded a medal for quickly capturing a criminal organization and aiding a citizen in distress.
Someone had written a letter to the mayor explaining why he deserved a medal. According to Stephanie, it was the perfect way of thanking him for all he had done for her. [Music] [Music] he
