Police adventure

Wife and I coming home tonight from the store. Make the turn into our neighborhood, notice a Ft. Lauderdale cop right behind me. Speed limit on that road is 25, I joke "Hey, I'm speeding!" at 27mph. Stop completely at the stop sign, make the left, turn into our driveway, and he hits his red and blues, plus the spotlight!! Pulls in right behind me so I cannot escape. From my driveway. WTF!!! "Sir, you need to fix your lights, you have several out" Look, yup. He says "Get that taken care of, it's dangerous. Have a nice night." No license and registration, just a "Courtesy call" I guess. Made my heart go pitty pat though. I could have done without the dramatic light display, though.

That's good....much better than the "fix it" tickets.

Don't you live in a bad area? He was probably doing it to see if you looked like someone who would be involved in gang or drug activity. When you weren't, it wasn't worth his time.

Got pulled a few months back in a similar situation. One tail light out. I asked the officer if I could change it right there (I had pulled into the local fire station). He offered to help. He said that it was the second Jetta that evening, and I explained that it was an issue with them. I turned out to have every bulb but that one, he said that I should just get it fixed ASAP, gave me his card, and said to have anyone that gave me trouble call him. Made me pleased to pay taxes (of the non-speeding ticket variety) here.

I was cruising from Hamilton, Ontario back to Detroit this morning. Everyone is doing 120 kmh in a 100 zone on the 401.Cop cruises up beside me in the left lane and wags a finger at me. He must have been coming down a down ramp and none of us saw him coming. I slow down to 100 and he moves up the line to the next car and repeats the process. This went on for at least six cars before he cruised off into the distance.

Driving through League City, TX, (speed trap), when I lived there. In the 220D, slow as Christmas with tinted windows. Get pulled over on the main drag. Dusty, 5/8ths Pit Bull (the totally bat-E36 M3 crazy kind, like on TV during sweeps week, not the cuddly lick you to death kind), 1/4 Rhodesian Ridgeback, 1/8 Doberman, who was in the back seat, climbs between the seats and sits in my lap, with her head out the window, looking at the PoPo. Goes to run my license, comes back. "Sir... Were you a-ware that one of your tail lights is not as bright as the other?" "Oh, no, officer, I wasn't. I'll look at that as soon as I get home."

I was given the "lights out" story once. Was pulled over after midnight on the way home from dropping off a friend who had been drinking (we had a regular Monday night football poker night).

Thing is the cop didn't realize I could see the lights he was talking about as I had the interior out of my rabbit cause, you know, like, Racecar. Anyway, he pulls me over, takes my paperwork, yada yada. He heads back to his car after telling me to get em fixed and that he's just giving me a verbal warning.

As he drives away I get out and verify that my license plate lights really are working.

Not getting that half hour back of my life. I called the trooper station to complain. At 2 am. On a Tuesday.

I got a formal apology for needlessly pulling me over. They were fishing for drunk drivers and my "hot rodded VW" led them to me? Really.

If he had simply said they were stopping random vehicles to check for drunks I'd have been okay with it. But he lied. So I called him on it.

Driving through Colorado in my Vette on the way to Vegas, about 1am. Got stopped for 80 in a 70, no plate light. The silver fire bottle that hangs from the rollbar is visable through the back window, and the cop mistook it for a nitrous tank before he got a closer look. He laughed. "All I could think was 'I'll never catch this guy' ". I got a warning and was on my way.

Got pulled in the middle of nowhere Virginia one very late night on BABE rally.

2 guys, dressed as Elvis, in a decrepit VW beetle loaded to the gills in the back with all sorts of tools, luggage, etc.

We had used a plastic kitty litter box as a speaker enclosure. The cop took a look and said "what's in the kitty litter box" we dug it out of the rest of the pile enough for him to see that it was just a speaker box.

"you boys got any drugs in there....."

Yeah, I could see how one might assume that. He warned us about our tail light (which actually had gone out) and sent us on our way.

On one of my many trips from FL to TN I got pulled over on I85 for not signalling a lane change. I started to explain to him that I never did signal if there is no one close behind me or gaining on me and the car ahead is going much slower than me, but I didn't. As a matter of fact I ALMOST always DO signal a lane change now even if the other cars aren't that close.

Yeah, my shady neighborhood probably had a bit to do with the stop. There is a lot of drug activity here, and a high police presence, so he could have been exercising his Probable Cause to stop and check. I don't mind that a bit. Wife and I are both Senior Citizens, and one look at us pretty much showed we were not dealers. I think.

I have a plastic license frame on the Trooper. I got pulled and was given a $55 ticket because it partially obscured the month/year tag stickers, so I trimmed it out and went to court to try to get it reduced. The judge let the fine stand because it was as low as it could go.

I was driving home last night when a town cop blew past me. A minute later, another one. I make the next turn and see them flying up the hill away from me. I make the next turn, onto my street, and there are P71s parked in front of my house, lights ablaze, and I see a cop trotting between my house and the neighbors...
I knew my wife and kids had just gotten home, but you can bet I parked in a hurry and went in to turn all the lights on, because there have been some break-ins in the neighborhood. I was sure they had seen somebody in the yard, or surprised somebody when they came in.

I was almost relieved to see an ambulance show up for the elderly neighbor next door. Almost .

That would be scary.

We have had 4 armed home invasion robberies in our area in the last 3 months. I have had police road blocks in my front yard. Have learned the sound of a P71. Now I just know that if a bad guy comes by, I will introduce him to my little friend Red. That's our new, very healthy, 50# mouth full of big teeth pit mix. Damn, I want to move to the middle of the 'Glades.

This morning a State Trooper was drive 60 mph in a 65 mph zone. Yea 2 miles of congestion! Luckily he turned off at the Weigh Station.

RossD wrote: This morning a State Trooper was drive 60 mph in a 65 mph zone. Yea 2 miles of congestion! Luckily he turned off at the Weigh Station.

See, I have no compunction about passing a cop who's going under the limit, at least when the conditions are good.