He cut the picture of a man that had been caught. His manliness struggled to assert itself as his shoulders remained fallen with his mind running in different places still wondering what happened. He was definitely in a rush to keep up an important assignment but the traffic refused to yield to him the right of free passage.

Something had told him he must navigate the resistance and be on his way. He looked up and saw that the road was free in the distance, upon which he stepped on the accelerator as he saw an opening on the lane to the right. Unfortunately, as he moved a few meters, some gun-toting officers of the Lagos State Task force on BRT traffic violation jumped in front of him. They had smartly spread themselves within meters from one another such that if any commuter, shocked by their sudden appearance from nowhere but regaining their composure quickly enough, decided to do an 007 or Mission Impossible stunt, they would be ready to pounce on him and block his attempted getaway. They had this long metal with spikes that can destroy any tire should the owner attempt to ‘escape’ from them.

My neighbour quickly assessed the situation and decided to calm down and simply beg them. I know him, he is not a traffic offender! Neither does he take pleasure in breaking the law but it was not a time for sermonizing. There were other ‘unlucky commuters’ who were expressing various forms of shock at their arrests. Every plea fell on deaf ears but eventually, my neighbour was released but he never forgot the feeling of being caught. He kept referring to it as a numbing feeling. He said he told himself he would not want to be found in any situation like that again.

What is your memorable experience of being caught?