Here’s more proof that deputies just never know what they are going to encounter on the job. Dep. Robert Pounds...
Posted by Collier County Sheriff's Office [1] on Tuesday, October 1, 2019 [2]
Deputy Robert Pounds — a police officer from Florida, USA — got quite the surprise [3] while conducting a routine traffic stop. After pulling over Wilfrid Jean-Louis, a 36-year-old soon-to-be dad and his wife, Fabienne Gorges, he realised that Fabienne was in labour and needed his help to deliver the baby [4].
"Here's more proof that deputies just never know what they are going to encounter [5] on the job," wrote the Collier County Sheriff's Office on Facebook. "Deputy Robert Pounds spotted a car doing 63 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on Airport-Pulling Road around 4:30 this morning, so he conducted a traffic stop. When he approached the car he quickly realised the passenger was in labour and about to deliver a baby."
According to the dash cam footage, Wilfrid immediately told the officer what the situation was. "Officer, you have the right to stop me, I'm not gonna even lie," he said. "We have a baby coming out. That's the reason why I'm speeding." Though the deputy thought it was an act at first, he quickly changed his mind when he saw the baby's head crowning.
After calling for backup and an ambulance, Pounds helped deliver a sweet baby girl with only a sterile blanket and a pair of latex gloves. "I laid the blanket down and it wasn't too long after that I was holding a newborn baby in my hands," Deputy Pounds told Today. "I guess you could say it was just my training that kicked in. The baby did most of the work, we'll put it that way."
"Even though I looked calm, I was probably a little more scared on the inside than I appeared."
In his 26 years on the force, Pounds has never seen anything quite like it despite being a father of three himself. "The baby gripped my forefinger, which really made me feel good because it was a nice tight squeeze and I knew she was going to be OK," he explained. "Even though I looked calm, I was probably a little more scared on the inside than I appeared," he said. "But my training and my agency's training really helped me out quite a bit."
Wilfrid and Fabienne opted to honour the officer in a particularly sweet way, by naming their brand-new baby girl, Leila Robert Jean-Louis, after him. "It was only right," Wilfrid explained. "It was only fair. He was there, and he did what I wasn't able to do."
And in case anyone was curious, the new parents didn't end up getting that traffic ticket, after all! Cheers to the happy couple.