Why did Dubai Police stop traffic on key highway for just one man

Dubai - The motorist had kept the wallet on the car bonnet.

What do you do when you realise you have forgotten your wallet on the bonnet of your car, and just as you step on the gas on a busy six-lane road you see it fly in front of your eyes?

Pull up and attempt to dart in and out of the morning rush hour traffic risking a hefty fine, if not your life? Drive along cussing yourself for your recklessness and forgetting all about it? Or simply call the police? It was a tough call in a real situation on Tuesday during what should have otherwise been yet another routine and uneventful midweek morning drive to work up along E44 (Al Khail road). I considered the first fleetingly, almost decided to go with option number two but held on to the third as if it were one last hope.

And I am glad I did so because that's when I experienced, first hand, the real, humane side of Dubai's men in olive green who held up traffic for two long minutes for me to race to the middle lane and fetch my beleaguered wallet back.

In the end, it didn't really matter because the wallet had almost emptied itself by then, succumbing to the brutal wheels of its brief life on the road, traipsing down Business Bay crossing for 20-odd minutes covering about 100 metres. After several flips and somersaults, all it was left with was the single credit card I had. And I all I could gather were an ATM card, two passport-sized photographs and a Dh10 note that lay strewn on the road. What I feared losing the most, the press card issued by the UAE National Media Council that said I was an accredited journalist, was gone with the wind as was my Emirates ID, my driver's and vehicle licence. Yet what felt great was that Dubai Police, instead of issuing tickets worth Dh3,000, made a genuine attempt to make yet another UAE resident happy.

If you thought the men in olive green were all tough-talking, hard-bitten officers forever chasing criminals and convicts, then the penny - quite literally - hasn't dropped for you. It has for me!

Potential fines:

Violation: Stopping the vehicle in in prohibited areas on the left road shoulder in public roads | Dh1,000 fine

Violation: Throwing wastes from vehicles onto the roads | Dh1,000 fine | 6 black points

Violation: Causing disturbance to traffic in any way not set forth in this schedule | Dh500 fine

Violation: Leak or falling of parts of the loads from a light vehicle. | Dh500 fine

How the drama unfolded:

11.05am - Traffic is back to normal and the wallet is recovered