Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi Reunites with Officer from Infamous Jersey Shore Arrest and Recreates the Viral Moment (Exclusive)

Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is looking back at one of her biggest Jersey Shore moments.

It was 15 years ago, on July 30, 2010, that Snooki’s season 3 arrest went down on the beach in Seaside Heights. The infamous drunken arrest saw the reality star charged with disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and criminal annoyance.

Speaking with PEOPLE about that infamous day, Polizzi recalls a night out at beloved local haunt Karma that went into the early morning hours despite a 10:00 a.m. shift at the t-shirt shop.

“I literally hardly got any sleep, and obviously, we were drinking a lot. So when I woke up, I was dead, like dying. I walked in with my club dress still on and a blanket. I was dying. I needed sleep,” she recalls.

“I was like, ‘Okay, if I need to finish this shift and do this, I’m just going to run away and keep the party going. I’m going to go get a mimosa, I’m going to go enjoy myself, and then I’ll go back to work,’ but then obviously I got arrested.”

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In the lead-up to the arrest, Polizzi remembers having a good time and just wanting to get onto the beach. Her question didn’t come out as intended, however, leading to the often-memed moment of her standing on the boardwalk just beside the beach yelling, “Where is the beach?”

“I meant, ‘How do you get on the beach?’ Because there’s only so many ramps on the boardwalk to get on the beach,” she explains. “So I was so drunk that I wasn’t asking the right question. That’s why I kept running, because I couldn’t find a ramp. And then when I finally got onto the beach, that’s when the girls came and they were like, ‘You cannot swim. You need to go home.’ ”

The next thing Polizzi remembers is that the police officers who had joined the crew that day to keep production conditions safe for the entire cast and crew were intervening.

“They were actually with us. They weren’t working for the town at the time,” she explains.

“But then it was just like, ‘Alright, she’s getting out of hand. If this was anybody else, we would arrest them.’ So they had to arrest me. I was nuts.”

Polizzi credited the officers with being “really super nice, because they knew I was scared.”

“I never got arrested before or got in trouble like that, so I was nervous. I was asking to call my dad. I was like, ‘What’s going to happen?’ So they didn’t put me in a cell right away. They actually let me sit down and they offered me a doughnut. They were like, ‘Everything’s going to be fine. You just have to stay here for a little bit. It’s protocol.’ ”

Understanding that she “wasn’t going to jail for the rest of life” calmed the reality star down.

“They had to put me in a cell for a little bit. And I think I took a nap for a second, but then I woke up and they were like, ‘All right, your friends are here. You can leave.’ ”

Polizzi thought she’d been in jail overnight, but in reality, only a few hours had passed. The cast already had their sights set on the night ahead, which would include a trip back to Karma.

In celebration of the anniversary and how far she’s come since, Polizzi invited Officer Joe Fastige to her Seaside Heights location of The Snooki Shop to reminisce.

“That’s the first time I saw him since he arrested me,” she shares. “I know a lot of my friends knew of him, so they were like, ‘Oh, I know the guy that arrested you.’ But I never saw him after he threw me in the cop car. So it was very funny to see him, and it was just laughs.”

“He was very nice. We did funny little TikToks of reminiscing and reenacting him arresting me. But he’s a nice guy.”

While for some people, an intoxicated arrest might be something they want to forget, Polizzi is proud of all her chapters and is never afraid to look back. Her journey to life as a reality star, entrepreneur and mom was paved with moments she can take in stride, no matter what anyone has to say.

“I never took myself seriously, thank God, so when people talked about me bad or made fun of me, I’m just like, ‘Whatever, let me live.’ ”

“I feel like, especially back then, everyone had something to say about us. They were judging whatever. It’s not like we were killing people. We were just enjoying ourselves, being young and single at the boardwalk and down the shore.”

From her early reality TV fame, Polizzi quickly learned, “It’s not that serious.”

“When I did get arrested, I was terrified, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought my life was over, and I ruined everything because I never got in trouble like that before. And then I had to go to court and all this stuff, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, what did I do?’ But now looking back at it was just a silly little mistake, and I moved on. It wasn’t that serious.”

Polizzi says there was a time for fun “when I was single and doing Jersey Shore,” but her life has changed a lot as the show and the rest of the cast have also evolved.

“Once I met Jionni, it was like, ‘Oh, I really like this guy, and I want to settle down.’ I mean, the main reason why I wanted to go on this show and go down the shore was to find my husband and have tan babies,” she continues. “That was the ultimate goal was for me to find my husband and get married, and have kids. So when I met Jionni, I was like, ‘Okay, this might be it.’ And then all I wanted to do was be with him and settle down, and then we ended up getting pregnant, and the rest is history.”

Today, the couple has been married for 10 years and shares three children — Lorenzo, 12, Giovanna, 10, and Angelo, 6. As a mom, Polizzi strives to build connections with her kids so that they can trust her with their worst, no matter what that looks like as they grow up.

“Growing up, my parents were super strict. That changed when I got on the show. I think they realized I was just an adult, and then they couldn’t ground me anymore. They just needed to be there for me,” she says of her parents. Many viewers fondly remember Polizzi’s heart-to-heart chats with her dad on the duck phone in the show’s early seasons.

“With my kids, I want to have that close relationship that I did have with my dad when I was older, like now. So I always tell my kids, ‘If anything happens, you’re uncomfortable, or something goes wrong, please call me. I will come get you. I’m not going to be mad at you. I want you to tell me everything.’ ”

These days, gatherings of the Jersey Shore crew look much different, with everyone’s kids running about and forming their own little friendships.

“It’s crazy because I remember I just had Lorenzo, and everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, you have a kid. We’re growing up.’ Now, looking at all of us and getting the kids together, it’s 12 kids. We have a ton of kids, and I feel like Mike will probably have one more. Eventually, when Vinny settles down, I think he’ll have a kid because I know he wants to be a dad one day. So it’s a lot of mini Jersey Shore kids.”

Once in a while, the adults enjoy quick trips away to get back up to their old antics. “We love being parents, and we’ve definitely all grown and matured, obviously. But I mean, when we do our little OG trips where it’s two nights and then we go home, we still can have a good time,” she laughs, adding, “I feel like we can still party, but then we’re dead for a week.”

There are more family moments to share, with filming picking up for the gang in a few weeks, after a break for the summer.

“We have a shore house, and we just go down the shore, we go on the boat. And it’s definitely different than back in the day shore houses because it’s like all my kids are there, family’s there, nieces and nephews. So it’s just a big kid party, but I love it. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

You can visit The Snooki Shop online or in person in Seaside Heights or Madison, NJ, Huntington, NY or Nashville, Tenn. and get your own “I’m a Good Person” t-shirt or “Where’s the beach?” keychain.