The other day, officer Elyse Helkenn of South Dakota Highway Patrol was making a routine traffic stop on a speeding motorist when something happened that was anything but routine.
She unexpectedly made a furry new friend.
“As I explained my reason for the stop [to the driver], obviously for the speed, I feel something brushing up against my leg — which is not something you want to feel when you’re out in the middle of nowhere,” Helkenn told NewsCenter1. “And I look down and there’s an orange cat.”
And as dashboard camera footage from the incident shows, the cat wasn’t merely passing through:
The cat did not belong to the driver that Helkenn had stopped — though he did seem eager for affection. As the officer completed her work, the cat climbed up on her shoulders, nearly knocking her hat off with his vigorous snuggles.
Afterward, Helkenn gave the cat a lift to safety.
South Dakota Highway Patrol
Helkenn asked a few locals if the cat was theirs before taking him to the nearby Humane Society of the Black Hills. From there, it was only a matter of days before he was adopted into a new forever home.
Humane Society of the Black Hills
It was an open and shut case — one that Helkenn won’t soon forget.
“In the original video, which I had to share with my coworkers, you can hear me say, ‘Best traffic stop ever,’” she said.
