As a drunken young person on our way back from a night out, some of the people I was with decided to scale a flagpoll outside a new housing estate to steal the building company flag which was flying at the top. Despite the danger, they managed to do it and we went on our way. When we were about 50-70m away, a police car pulled up next to us, which as a person with a clean criminal record caused me to panic that shit was about to get real. The police got out and told us to stop where we were, and since I didn’t want to rub them up the wrong way, I instinctively turned towards the nearest wall, put my hands up against it and spread my legs, ready to be searched like they do on TV. As I was standing there, after a moment of silence, I heard the police burst out laughing and told me to turn round. They told us off for being idiots and made us take the flag back, but that was it. My friends, however, had a lot of fun mocking my gritty detective show perp reaction for weeks after.