An Alabama woman said a 15-minute conversation with a kind state police officer during a traffic stop inspired her to pursue her dream career.
Alabama State Trooper J.T. Brown pulled over Abby Rutledge for speeding on a Birmingham highway, but instead of giving her a ticket, he gave her some life-changing advice in August 2022.
“I think it was the right person, the right time and the right words,” said Rutledge. told CBS News On Friday.
Rutledge, 20 at the time, told Brown that she was working full-time as a driver for Coca-Cola and was worried about how she would pay the ticket since she didn't have much money in her bank account.
The two discussed potential career paths for Rutledge during a conversation that lasted about 10 to 15 minutes.
“She challenged him to find a career and work on it,” Rutledge's mother, Tammy Guthrie, said on Facebook. “As they talked, she learned that Officer Brown had completed the Surgical Tech program at Bevill State in 2013, where his mother was an instructor.”
He concluded that Rutledge would make a good nurse, so Brown let her off with just a warning — leaving a simple request on the document: “Promise me you'll go to scrubs or nursing school, and work slow, and I won't give you a ticket.”
“She was so excited when she told me about that ticket,” Guthrie recalled.
Rutledge enrolled in the surgical technology program at Bevill State Community College in Jasper, Alabama, shortly after encountering the soldier.
“As soon as he left, and as soon as I got to the place where I wanted to go, I started pushing myself toward that career,” Rutledge told CBS. “And now here I am.”
Since Rutledge graduated from the program last month, she wanted Brown to be a part of her memorable moment.
“I wanted him to see the impact he had on me. Talking to someone for five minutes, even if you don't know them, can have the biggest impact on their life,” Rutledge said.
The two posed for a photo together holding the document, which Brown wrote just two years before graduation.
Rutledge now works as a certified surgical technologist at UAB Hospital-Highlands in Birmingham — just 40 minutes southeast of where she grew up.
“I really wanted to cry,” Routledge told Fox 6 News,
“He made my whole career worthwhile,” Brown said.
