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PLEASANT GROVE — If you break the law in Utah County, odds are good you'll have to answer to someone from Pleasant Grove High School's class of 1989.
Four members of that class are currently chiefs of police in Lehi, Pleasant Grove, Orem and Highland/Alpine.
Pleasant Grove Police Chief Mike Smith grew up in the city, attended Pleasant Grove High School and graduated with the class of 1989.
"Now I'm the police chief," Smith said. "I don't know how that happened, but it did."
That's not all that happened.
"I think I took out Chief Giles' girlfriend," Smith said. "He might still be upset at me for it."
He was referring to Gary Giles, Orem's police chief and a fellow Viking from the class of '89.
He doesn't hold a grudge about the girlfriend.
"Always friends," Giles said. "I don't think we ever had problems with each other."
When another classmate, Brian Gwilliam, was trying to decide what career path to take years ago, he called up Giles.
"I knew that Gary was working up in Orem, and so I called him up and went on a ride-a-long because I was trying to decide what to do for a career," said Gwilliam. He's now the chief of the Lone Peak Police Department, which services Alpine and Highland.
Three chiefs of police in cities just miles from one another.
"It's a lot of fun," Gwilliam said.
Then about four months ago, another member of their high school class became a chief of police.
"I don't want to be the one that drops the ball, so yeah, there was a little bit of pressure," quipped new Lehi Police Chief Darren Paul.
The men agree that a career in law enforcement was a wise decision for them, maybe more wise than some of the decisions they made in high school. They all laughed looking through their old yearbook recently, when they turned to the page of Smith with a mullet hairstyle.
But bad haircuts and old girlfriends aside, these four say the unlikely coincidence works to the benefit of all four police departments.
"I would bend over backwards to do anything for these chiefs as I know they would for me," Smith said.
The chiefs say many of their other classmates have law enforcement careers. They tried to count how many, got to 85 people and then stopped.
