Ben Carson Draws Laughs on Joke About Running From Police 'Back in the Day Before They Would Shoot You

GOP presidential candidate Ben Carson gave a small crowd at University of New Hampshire some insight into his mischievous childhood, joking about how he used to run from the cops.

The punchline the joke? "That was back in the day before they would shoot you," he said Wednesday.

"Anybody remember throwing rocks at cars when they were young?" Carson asked the group gathered in a room at the university located in Durham, New Hampshire, raising his own hand.

"There are a few honest people," he noted, seeing others raising their hands as well.

Image source: YouTube

"Everybody did it because it was so much fun. Because you know those old people, they would sometimes get angry and they would stop the car and they would get out and they would chase you and we would run slowly to encourage them," the Detroit native said, drawing laughs. "And then when they were nearby — choo — we were gone like a flash.

"But you know sometimes the police would come, always in unmarked cars. They'd be chasing us across the field and they would think they had trapped us. There were these fences that were about 10 feet tall. They had no idea how adept we were at getting over those fences," he continued, saying as kids they'd laugh at the cops after scaling the fences easily because they — the adults — couldn't do it.

"Now, that was back in the day before they would shoot you," Carson said, laughing along with the crowd before adding, "I'm just kidding. You know they wouldn't do that."

Watch the clip:

Carson's team confirmed Wednesday he has raised more than $20 million in the three-month period that ended Wednesday and $31 million overall since he entered the race in May — much of it from small-dollar donors or newcomers to presidential political politics.

Senior campaign staffers had a special cake made Wednesday to celebrate their fundraising haul, which was more money than what was raised by the GOP's entire White House field combined over the same period four years ago.

It's unclear if any of Carson's 2016 Republican rivals will hit the $20 million mark for the quarter, which ended Wednesday. Donald Trump, still the GOP presidential frontrunner despite a rise in the polls by Carson and Carley Fiorina, is funding his own campaign without donors.

The two leading Democrat have exceeded $20 million. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said late Wednesday it had raised $28 million, while Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' team said it had pulled in roughly $26 million.

(H/T: NPR)

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.