This driver’s act of kindness got him out of a speeding ticket

No one likes getting a speeding ticket. Just seeing those flashing lights in your rearview mirror as the speedometer creeps above where it’s supposed to be is enough to make your stomach drop. Then the officer hands you the ticket and all the crying and begging in the world won’t get you out of it. (Or, so I’ve heard. Ahem.)

Well, earlier this week, a kindhearted driver named Mike Powers actually did get out of his speeding ticket — and it was for a reason that’s giving us all the feels.

WJTV reports that Powers was driving from Tennessee to Mississippi for work when he was pulled over for speeding in a small town called Batesville. Obviously, he was less than thrilled when Mississippi State Trooper Jason Ales handed him a ticket totaling close to $200. (Ouch.) But instead of getting angry or upset, Powers responded in an amazing way. As he told WJTV, “I just had a feeling I needed to ask him how his day was going. I said how are you and how are the officers in Mississippi doing in light of all the senseless killings of police officers. He said he’s doing good and it’s tough and he was going to keep doing what he needed to do to help people.”

Then, Powers went one step further and gave the state trooper a wooden saint bracelet. Officer Ales was so touched, he tore up Powers’ speeding ticket. He says, “With the stuff that’s going on with officers, that right there was so positive we needed that, I mean I needed that.”

The bracelet now hangs from the camera in the state trooper’s patrol car, where he says, “It’s ahead of me and watching over me and my patrol car at all times.”

Powers was so touched by his encounter with the police officer that he’s donated the money he would have had to pay for the speeding ticket to the Palmer Home for Children in North Mississippi, an organization that provides care for orphaned kids. He says he was moved to make the gesture because, “My day was stressful because I was trying to get somewhere I didn’t think I’d make it to. That was nothing to what he deals with on a daily basis, the stress he has to deal with not knowing if he’s going to make it back home.”

The takeaway from this story might not really about speeding tickets or police officers. It’s about how a simple gesture or a kind word can change someone’s day and really touch them in ways you could never imagine. Props to Mike Powers and Officer Jason Ales for this tender reminder of the importance of everyday kindness.

(Images via WJTV News Channel 12 Twitter @WJTV.)