ARLINGTON, Texas — When you’re given the choice between jail and doing push-ups, the decision is pretty obvious.
One teen in Texas was given the opportunity after an Arlington police officer caught him smoking marijuana outside of a local movie theater, WFAA reports.
Earlier this week, officer Eric Ball was working off-duty when someone told him a teenager was smoking marijuana.
When officer Ball got outside, the teen finished the cigarette and threw it away. That’s when he smelled the marijuana.
After asking him about the weed, the teen was respectful and admitted to the mistake. So instead of arresting him, Ball told him to do push-ups.
“He said, ‘You give me 200 pushups, I won’t put you in jail,” Lt. Cook said.
On Monday, Raiza Paradez posted a video of the incident on Facebook.
“Big UP’s to the Arlington Police Officer that made the young black guy that decided to smoke weed on the movie theater parking lot to do push-ups then take him to jail or shoot him just Cuz,” the post read. “We need more cops like this. #Policeeverywhereneedtotakenotes #ArlingtonPoliceDept“