This past weekend, the police department in Asheville, North Carolina received a complaint that a huge 50-foot homemade Slip N’ Slide at a neighborhood Fourth of July block party was blocking the road.
Officers Joe Jones and Carrie Lee soon arrived to access the situation.
“Don’t worry, we’re not here to break up your fun. We received a call about the road being blocked — so here we are,” Lee told a group of about 50 residents.
The officers certainly kept their promise. They determined that the slide was in fact not blocking the road, as there was enough room for emergency vehicles to pass on the right-hand side. With this, they did not want to leave without giving the slide a whirl for themselves.
“Grab me one of those plastic Glad bags,” Lee told a group of children. A minute later, Lee was sliding down feet-first.
“We for sure did not expect that. She went first in the plastic bag,” stated Asheville resident Katlen Joyce Smith. ‘This is going to make such a good body-cam video,’” she joked.
On the other hand, Officer Jones, nearly 6-foot-6, was a bit more hesitant to take his turn down the slide.
“I thought I was going to be able to get out of it. [Lee] went down a trash bag and I’m too big to go down a trash bag,” Jones explained in a video the police department posted on Twitter.
A group of children, however, convinced him to give it a try, pulling out a double inner tube that he could undoubtedly fit in.
Sharing the raft with a young boy, Jones soon was flying down the slide.
“My butt is wet,” Jones laughed at the end of his ride, trying to squirm out of the tube. Huge grins on their faces, several kids and adults quickly came to give him a helping hand.
“The kids were squealing. Everyone was screaming,” Smith said. “We just couldn’t believe it. We were all laughing hysterically.”
According to Smith, this year was the first time the neighborhood built their own homemade Slip N’ Slide, piecing together old carpet remnants, plastic and straw bales.
“We probably had like at least 20 handles of Dawn dish soap to keep it slippery for the kids and adults. We were all bruised and sore after throwing our bodies down the slide for hours on end,” continued Smith.
Nonetheless, amidst the fun and excitement, no one seemed to mind.
“I still can’t handle the amazingness of it all. I hope the neighbor who called them saw it all go down!”
