Manhattan ? Had her dad not been stopped for speeding Thursday morning, Kayla Lynn Harper might have been born in a hospital.

But at least there were plenty of paramedics at the place Jeremy Harper chose to stop — the parking lot of the Riley County Law Enforcement Center.

“This is going to be a story I’m going to tell for the rest of my life,” Harper said after his wife, Tabatha McMillan, gave birth to Kayla in the front seat of their car.

Harper, 24, had been at his job as a warehouse manager in Junction City when he received the call from his 4-year-old son that McMillan was going into labor.

McMillan drove from their Junction City home to the warehouse, and the couple headed for Mercy Regional Health Center. While en route, Harper was pulled over for speeding by Riley County Police Officer Erin Anderson.

After frantically explaining that his wife was in labor, he jumped back into his car with the officer’s blessing and continued on toward the hospital.

“I was probably going 90 the whole way,” Harper said. “I was trying to make it.”

They got as far as the law enforcement center when they realized that wasn’t going to happen.

In the parking lot they were quickly assisted by Lt. Kurt Moldrup, the department’s first-aid trainer and himself a father of nine.

Three paramedics arrived in an ambulance and delivered Kayla in Harper’s car. The healthy newborn weighed 6 pounds, 14 ounces.