# Unusual hobby related story.



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

I delayed in posting this since I didn't want it to impact my school's decision to accept or reject me before, but since I got in I figured it would be amusing for others to read what happened to me the day before I interviewed at my school.

So a couple of months ago I got an interview at a medical school in rural Tennessee and right about 2 days before my interview my rare Apistos spawned. So I decided to take my small brine shrimp hatchery with me on the interview so I could start it up the day before my interview and have it going in the hotel room / car so the shrimp were hatched and ready when I drove home to Philadelphia.

So there I was in Tennessee with my small DIY pickle jar / baby brine shrimp hatchery with the salt all premeasured and mixed with brine shrimp eggs, with the mini heater and bubbler all hooked up sitting in a bag in the front seat when I looked out the window and saw a giant hill with fossil bearing rock on the side of the road. Naturally I had to stop and poke around. So I decided to park on the curve of a side road that didn't seem to have any traffic at all, being in a sleepy rural town. The area was so rural and remote that I didn't even bother locking my car door.

I got a bit carried away looking at all the good fossils and walked around a bend in the cliff for a few minutes as I searched through the rocks with my small pick axe. Then when I'd collected enough I started walking back to the car and I see this cop lean in my car door through the driver's side and look over at the passenger's seat. He then backs out quickly and looks a bit startled. He turns around and sees me walking towards him with rocks in my hands and a mini pick axe. He backs up a few steps puts his hand on his gun at his side and says "is this car yours?" At this point I'm kind confused and slightly worried. The cop looks uneasy and trigger happy. I said "yes its my car." Then he says "whats that in the front seat in the bag?" So I look over and see my brine shrimp hatchery in the front seat half hidden in the plastic bag. I calmly explained how I've got fish and how I'm hatching food for them so I can drive back and feed it to them after my interview. He then asks me "Am I sure that I'm not cooking METH?" since there's such a big meth problem in the area.

Taking a second to fully understand what he was implying, I pieced it together, salt crystals, pickle mason jar, wires sticking out of it, parked in a random isolated place, abandoned car. I immediately assure him no its not! For some reason he visibly relaxed and I thought "oh good that wasn't too hard," and that's when 3 more cop cars appeared out of nowhere with lights flashing and surrounded my car on all sides, boxing me in. More policemen get out and start poking around in my car looking at the jar and asking me the same questions. Backup had arrived.

After a lot of cross questioning and a few sweaty moments on my side they seemed to accept my explanation. I'm sure I saw disappointment in their eyes... Lucky for me or it would have been hard to explain to the admissions people why I needed to be bailed out of jail for meth cooking charges the day before my interview!

This is what they saw in the front seat:


----------



## jrIL (Apr 23, 2005)

Now that's a good story.


----------



## Charlest (Mar 5, 2014)

Hahaha holy crap zapins how awkward.

Sent from my LG-D500 using Tapatalk


----------



## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

And you were holding a pickaxe.... I am very glad you were able to stay calm and not not do anything that would make the cop freak and shoot you. Did you have to open the jar and show them the baby shrimp eggs? Have em taste it, cuz ya know they love to stick things in there mouth to see if it tastes like drugs! I am so glad the cop didn't instantly point a gun at you telling you to put down the rocks and pick lol. That is one crazy story that I am glad you were able to share.


----------



## rjordan393 (Nov 23, 2012)

That looks like a bomb with a strange looking timer sticking out of it.


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Charlest said:


> Hahaha holy crap zapins how awkward.


I thought so too!



rjordan393 said:


> That looks like a bomb with a strange looking timer sticking out of it.


That's what I would have thought if I were him. I like how he called mega backup as soon as he saw that stuff.

I wonder if his cop friends are griefing him about calling in a meth raid which turned out to be fish food in the end? His new nickname might just be Aquaman 



pandragon said:


> And you were holding a pickaxe.... I am very glad you were able to stay calm and not not do anything that would make the cop freak and shoot you. Did you have to open the jar and show them the baby shrimp eggs? Have em taste it, cuz ya know they love to stick things in there mouth to see if it tastes like drugs! I am so glad the cop didn't instantly point a gun at you telling you to put down the rocks and pick lol. That is one crazy story that I am glad you were able to share.


Haha, I'm glad I didn't get to taste lead that day  No he actually just took my word for it which I thought was kind of odd given how sketchy the jar looked with the crystals of unknown substance at the bottom and all the wires sticking out of it..

This is what the hatchery looks like when its all set up and running in non-sketch mode:


----------



## pandragon (Jul 10, 2014)

It looks about to explode... I don't know how anything can live in that stuff. Brine shrimp, that is what flamingos eat out of hot pools that nothing else lives in right? And they are good for our fish--fo figure. By the way, how do you know if anything is alive in there when you vant see through all the foam?


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

You just turn off the bubbler and let it sit for a few minutes. The shrimp are attracted to the light and are very easy to see. It is an easy way to feed small fish.


----------



## Grizzle Fish (May 29, 2014)

STEP AWAY FROM THE FISH EGGS!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

Grizzle Fish said:


> STEP AWAY FROM THE FISH EGGS!


Haha I know right?


----------



## HybridHerp (May 25, 2012)

Oh god, what a story.


----------



## TankAaron (Aug 8, 2014)

ROFL! What an experience! Now you know, next time, pack it in a box, and close it up.

About the cop calling in back-up because of a dangerous brine shrimp hatchery, he's joined the ranks of those who deserve the stupid heckling. It reminded me of this cop on the news a few years back, somewhere in England, Wales, I think. He called for back-up because he saw mysterious lights over a hill. It was very bright, so he called in the whole station. The back-up arrives to see the source of the great big bright light: the moon.


----------



## mdcham (Nov 10, 2014)

Great story! Good luck with your med school applications!


----------



## smmcgill (Oct 26, 2014)

Lmao


----------

