Traffic stop turns into surprise of a lifetime for Hanson, Mass., mother

HANSON, Mass. —Hanson police said not all traffic stops are negative, especially when they're helping a local hometown hero with a surprise visit home to see his mother.

Darlene MacAllister said she remembers a sinking feeling when she saw the flashing blue lights behind her when she was driving.

"I was scared," she said. "I know I was speeding a little bit trying to get home."

Not one -- but three Hanson police officers pulled her over and politely told her to get out of the car.
"He says, 'What's up with your sticker? When did you get that?'" MacAllister said.

She said police were just distracting her. What she didn't know was that her son, PV2 Alan MacAllister, was about to pull off the surprise homecoming he has been plotting for weeks.

"It definitely caught me off guard," Darline MacAllister said. "I just hung up the phone with him saying he wasn't going to be home because his flight was canceled. The police officer had him call and tell me that."

Alan MacAllister, an Army engineer based at Fort Carson, Colorado, said the look on his mother's face when she saw him for the first time was worth it.

"I can't explain it," he said. "It was just one of those looks. Like, you're so happy and so pissed off at the same time. I got her."

But one good prank deserves another.

"Oh, I've already got mine figured out," Darlene MacAllister said.