Woman Sends $100 To Tulsa To Apologize For Father Stealing TPD Ticket Book In 1960

A Tennessee woman sent $100 to Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum, with an apology, over the theft of a police officer's ticket book in 1960.

A representative of the Mayor's office said the cash arrived with a letter that said " Sorry I'm 60 years late in sending this to the City of Tulsa. I trust you to channel the money to the proper department." The Tulsa City Council formally accepted the donation Wednesday night, without discussion.

The letter, from Jeannie Rogers, a former Tulsan, described a situation when as a 16-year-old newly licensed teenager, she received a traffic ticket from a Tulsa motorcycle officer. Her letter says it was for an illegal left turn, with a $20 fine, and her father, riding with her, was upset over a ticket being issued for such a minor infraction.

Rogers's letter says her father told her to follow the officer to his next stop, at a convenience store, and when the officer went inside, her father jumped out and stole the officer's ticket book that was on the motorcycle. He had her drive to a bridge over the Arkansas, she wrote, and "with a mighty side-arm heave" he threw it over the railing.

Rogers continued "We were never caught - the criminal and the accomplice. If I could, I would apologize to that policeman, who, after all, was only doing his job." She wonders in her letter if the officer was punished for losing his ticket book, and says she never got another ticket.

Rogers wrote Mayor Bynum that she hoped the $100 would cover not only her fine but a few others as well and that sending the money and apology "eases my conscience. It's never too late to do the right thing."