On her first time riding her bike without training wheels, five-year-old Olivia Thiessen received something she never expected.
Police saw the young girl riding in her Calgary neighbourhood and pulled her over to give her a ticket.
It wasn’t for doing anything wrong — it was for doing something right. Olivia was wearing her helmet and having fun outside, getting exercise.
It’s a Calgary Police Service (CPS) initiative called positive ticketing.
When police see kids doing something worth rewarding, they stop and issue them a ticket which comes with a coupon for two free admissions to any Calgary recreation centre.
Olivia’s mom, Angie, posted a picture of the ticket on Twitter and it went viral.
“It’s been kind of crazy,” Thiessen said.
“I don’t tweet very often, but I liked what the police had done, so I tweeted out and I tagged them in it and I think I’ve had something like 1,300 likes.”
Olivia plans to use her ‘ticket’ to go swimming with her brother.