Arlington Officer Eric Ball was working his off-duty job as security for the Tinseltown Cinemark Monday night when someone told him a teen was smoking marijuana near the front door.
The cop said “I asked him to come here,” Ball said. “When he noticed I was an officer, he came walking toward me. But he dropped something in his hand.”
Officer Ball says the teen was facing a misdemeanor citation and fines for having drug paraphernalia.
“You out here in front of the door smoking weed. What are you thinking? That was dumb,” Ball said. “So you're going to go to jail for something dumb today.”
But second chances are something Officer Ball knows about firsthand. He was inspired by his own high school mentor, who was also a police officer.
“The officer who was my mentor, he looked out for me,” Ball said. “So I just wanted to do it as a learning tool.”
So Ball made the teen an offer.
DO 200 PUSHUPS OR GO TO JAIL: After a police officer caught a teen smoking marijuana in a movie theater parking lot, he gave him two options: Do 200 pushups or go to jail. "It's easy to arrest folks," he said. "But it's harder to change someone."
