An Alabama State Trooper and a Jasper woman were recently featured in a CBS News story about how a seemingly routine traffic stop in 2022 changed the woman's life for the better.
In August 2022, 20-year-old Abbie Rutledge was pulled over for speeding in Birmingham.
Rutledge told the trooper who stopped her, J.T. Brown, that she could not afford to pay for a ticket and that she was "broke and in a dead-end job," according to CBS.
Instead of issuing the driver a ticket, Brown and Rutledge spoke "for about 10 to 15 minutes" about potential career paths to improve her situation. The two eventually landed on Rutledge going into nursing.
Brown gave the woman a warning and wrote on it: "Promise me you'll go to scrub or nursing school, and slow down, and I won't give you a ticket."
Rutledge recalled, "As soon as he left and as soon as I got to where I was going I started pushing myself toward that career, and now I'm here."
Two years later, Rutledge, 24, has graduated from Bevill State Community College and now works as a "Certified Surgical Technologist (CST) at UAB Highlands," according to her Facebook page.
Brown admitted he "never" could have imagined Rutledge would have taken their conversation as seriously as she did, but he was on hand for her graduation.
"I wanted him to see the impression he made on me," Rutledge told CBS. "Five minutes talking to anybody, even if you don't know them, can make the largest impact of their life. You never know when it could happen."
"I think it was the right person, the right time and the right words said," she added.
That fateful day also inspired the state trooper.
"She made my entire career worth it," an emotional Brown stated.
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