PAYDAY.CBS 07/30/04 8:38 AM-DLR   1:25
Caramel Temptation.  This is Dave Ross on the CBS Radio Network.
By now you've heard the sad tale- the story of Stephanie Willett, age 45, who was eating a Pay Day candy bar while riding an escalator at Washington DC's Metro Center station.
It is illegal to eat and drink anywhere in the Metro system, so an alert transit officer warned her to finish the candy bar before entering the turnstile.
Willett complied - or THOUGHT she did - stuffing the rest of the candy bar into her mouth, and discarding the wrapper in a responsible manner.
But the officer kept watching, and saw it all.  She saw Willett pass through the turnstiles, STILL CHEWING.
So she wrote a ticket.  Willett apparently thought it was an episode of Candid Camera and suggested the officer go and take care of some real crime.
And that got her arrested searched and cuffed - allegedly for being belligerent - which I'm guessing stemmed from the realization that she'd just been hauled in for failing to swallow in time.
And now everyone's beating up on the cops.
But frankly, at a time when Americans are wolfing down more food than ever, at a time when drug dealers routinely swallow balloons of cocaine, I can't believe a person is incapable of choking down a simple candy bar.
No, in fact what I think what we have here is something WORSE than eating.  She was savoring.  I used to eat Pay Day Candy bars.
 She was savoring the last bite.  As I did.  For years.  But I BROKE my habit.
Giving up that delicious combination of salted peanuts around a soft caramel center was the hardest thing I've ever done.  But I did it, and Ms Willett someday you will THANK the transit police; someday you WILL thank them.
Now this. 
~C:\works\files\PAYDAY.CBS