Southside Steve, Johns Creek police bury the hatchet

READ | Roswell police collecting unwanted drugs, needles on April 28

READ | Shred your old documents for free in North Fulton

"By the way, Steve does not look good in that Reno police uniform," said Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker, who was at the corner with Rickman, police captain Chris Byers and officer Phil Nguyen for a Facebook Live.

Rickman was pulled over near the intersection Saturday for running a red light. Rickman began broadcasting the stop on Facebook Live, arguing that the light was yellow. The post went viral, prompting Johns Creek police to post a dashcam photo to its Facebook page, showing that Rickman did in fact run a red light.

“Johns Creek will fight back on Facebook,” Rickman said. “Watch what you do.”

At the beginning of a Facebook Live broadcast that started at 7 a.m. on Friday, Rickman shook hands, exchanged laughs and hugged Nguyen, the officer who pulled him over.

“This is your fault, man!” Rickman said with a laugh. “This is the guy that arrested me right here, we’re on Facebook Live, not his fault. He didn’t arrest me, he ticketed me for running a yellow and the light was red, huh? When I came across the intersection?”

“Yes sir,” Nguyen said.

“Who knew?” Rickman said with a shrug. “You win.”

READ | Sign for Fulton judge candidate stolen in Alpharetta, police say

READ | Forsyth, North Fulton police join forces to crack down on drug dealers

Rickman had Byers and Bodker on his radio show this week, and after studying the photo Johns Creek police posted on Facebook, he admitted his guilt.

“I see the picture, I see what’s going, and finally I just said, ‘I’m guilty,’” Rickman said. “The light had changed, regardless of what I saw — which I did see yellow, I wasn’t fibbing — but I didn’t clear it. It was red. I’m not going to fight it in court.”

Rickman said his co-host, Jason Bailey, stayed on his case about the incident though, because he had given Johns Creek’s police force so much grief. Bailey told Rickman he owed Johns Creek some payback.

So, the show put this out to their fans, and the listeners came up with the idea of Rickman wearing a “Reno 911” costume and holding a sign, publicly admitting his guilt.

But how long would Rickman stay out there? Another listener chimed in and suggested that, since Rickman was bragging about how many views his first Facebook Live got, he should stay out on the corner until he passed that mark.

Sporting the short shorts and tight shirt in low temperatures, Rickman pledged to stay at the intersection and collect donations until the Facebook Live reached 11,000 views. At 11 a.m., the post was viewed more than 22,000 times, had 169 shares, more than 1,500 likes and 906 comments.

READ | High-flying Hawks: Maryland Eastern Shore hoops broke HBCU barriers

READ | North Fulton QB commits to Lane Kiffin, FAU

“It was all decided by our listeners,” Rickman said. “The Reno 911 thing was pretty funny, but wearing that outfit was rough. I froze my butt off this morning, wearing that skimpy little outfit.”

Rickman said in the three hours he was standing near the intersection, he collected about $1,000 in donations for Special Olympics Johns Creek.

The ticket he was given Saturday comes with three points. Rickman said he’s going to pay the fine, but he hopes that Johns Creek does him “a solid” on the points.

“I think I learned a lesson out of all of this, I truly did,” Rickman said. “The past 72 hours or so since this really blew up on me, I’ve come across probably 12 or 13 yellow lights, and last week I probably would’ve driven through them. Now I’m stopping. And people at work have stopped me and said, ‘Man, I come to a yellow light now, and I think of you, and I stop.’ So, maybe there was a good reason that this happened.”

Like North Fulton County News Now on Facebook | Follow on Twitter

MORE LOCAL NEWS...