Have you ever been given a break by the cops?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I’m 56 now, and have been pulled over perhaps 15-20 times or so, most of them when I was driving sports cars, mostly custom pro street. Rarely did I ever get a break, and it was often chickenshit type of offenses, rarely was it for speeding too, because I was extremely careful, and I also knew not to give them attitude.

Only during my latter years, and driving cars that were not sports cars, did I notice how much of a difference it made. I honestly can’t recall ever getting a ticket in my small Ford Ranger pick-ups, I’ve had two of these pickups now over a period of some 25 years or so.

22

Why couldn’t you have put it in neutral and kept the revs up?

A couple of week ago I was riding through a nearby town, and a cop parked in a nearby parking lot flashed his roof lights at me. That was a nice little warning which I heeded.

23

Actually I have been given a break by the cops many times, let off with warnings for speeding and such. When I was younger I was being too rowdy at a bar and they called the cops on me and the cops actually drove me home, that kind of thing almost never happens.

24

Have you ever been given a break by the cops? Yes.

25

**Have you ever been given a break by the cops?

**Yes I have. Sorry, but I will not go into details. I wanted to check in and answer your question.

26

When I was a teenager and driving my father’s car I was pulled over a few times. I was given a break because I was a township resident. I have tried to do the same when possible whenever I can.

27

My small business knows all the local cops pretty well, both in our town and the next one over as well as a ton of the sheriffs. Mostly because we’ve been here for so long and a lot of them eat lunch here.
We say hi when they come in, we donate to National Night Out and some of the other programs they do (especially if it’s one officer’s pet project) we offer them a something to drink if they’re cleaning up an accident in 85 degree weather in front of the store, if they call us down in the middle of the night for something we’ll ask them if they want a sandwich as we do a walk through (which is probably part of the reason they check on the building at night for us), we’ve scratched their back and in return, a few times over the years people have been pulled over and the cops have said ‘hey, you work at _____, ya know what, just slow down a little’ and that’s the end of it.

FTR, we don’t do all that stuff to get out of speeding tickets or anything like that, we do all that stuff because we’re nice, but more importantly, we do all that stuff because they keep an extra eye on our building. They get out of their car at 3am and make sure the door is locked. 15 minutes before we close an officer will use that as a good time to stop in and buy a bowl of soup, they set up speed traps in our lot etc. All this stuff keeps our employees much safer. Who wants to rob a place when they see a cop car in the parking lot every day at lunch and 3 or 4 times a week right around closing time.

28

Once in the mid-70s. I was home on military leave and had a few beers. It was snowing so I decided to do a few donuts in a K-Mart parking lot. Cop saw me and pulled me over. I was so nervous, and a little drunk, that I accidentally gave the cop my military ID instead of driver’s license. He let me go if my buddy Gary would drive. Trouble was that Gary was probably drunker than me plus he’d never driven a stick shift before! We made it out of the parking lot and down the highway some before I had Gary pull over so that I could drive.

29

Me, my brother, and an old girlfriend of mine closed down a bar one night in downtown Austin, around 1975. We were all 3 knee walking drunk having a great time crowded into the front seat of my 64 Valiant (push button tranny), my girl a wild looking ginger, me and my brother hair down our backs with full Jerry Garcia beards, I was too drunk to do anything let alone drive and having come to a stop 20 feet from a stop sign we were laughing hysterically playing grabass etc when a patrol car pulled up behind us. We just looked at each other cause it was jail for sure, then started laughing harder than ever. Cop sat there behind us a minute, backed up, pulled around us, and went on his way. That’s back when it was still legal to drive around in Texas with an ice chest in the front seat drinking cold beer all the time. We call those the good old days.

30

Yes.

31

I got pulled over and given a ticket every single weekend when i was a teenager. Cept the time i was driving drunk, that one let me go.

32

  1. 14 years old. Got caught with two friends shoplifting make-up (dumb thing to do)

  2. I was only given a warning when stopped for speeding (20mph over).

That’s about it. Other than that, I’ve never been caught at anything else.

33

I went to a bar and spent the evening drinking with friends. The thing I never got around to was eating something so I got really hammered. Around 11:00 PM I remembered that I would have to be driving and realized I was way too drunk at that point so I quit drinking alcohol and waited for the buzz to wear off. After an hour or so my friends started to leave and even though I was still feeling pretty good I decided to drive home, about two miles away. So I’m sitting at a red light behind two other cars, waiting for the light to change, I’d been stopped probably 5 seconds and some guy slams into me from behind. Hit me HARD! The cops show up, talk to us both (seperately) and give the guy that hit me a breathalyzer test. I’m watching from about 100 ft. away. After they test him (he passed!?) they both look at me…look at each other…look back at me…look at each other…and don’t test me. I’m sure they knew I had been drinking. I don’t know if I would have passed but it would have been barely one side of the limit or the other. I feel like they cut me a major break.

34

Not really; no. Tried to keep well away from ever needing to.

35

Couple of times. Mrs. SMV and self were heading to the beach when I was stopped by a North Carolina State Patrol officer for overuse of foot on accelerator. Guy was young, black and very nice; he gave me a ticket for speeding - completely deserved - but he reduced the MPH over the speed limit so that I could pay the ticket by mail, instead of having to make another trip back to Onslow County for traffic court.

Another time I was heading to a race on the other side of the city, and ran the red light at the end of the on-ramp when I got off the highway. It was 4:30 a.m., and no one was around…except for the police cruiser that I failed to see stopped at the light I had just run. The cops pulled up next to me, and just gave me an incredulous “Are you blind, or just stupid, dumbass?” look before pulling away.

It’s worth noting that I am white, middle class, and over thirty.

36

About 4 years ago, I was involved in a traffic accident. I was at fault and caused it. When the cop got around to getting my story, I simply told him what happened with no embellishment. He let me off with no citation because I didn’t try to bullshit him.

37

Yes. One huge break was back in the double nickel days in the early 1980s I was driving 130 MPH eastbound on I-80 at the Bonneville Salt Flats. A Utah Highway Patrolman in a Mustang 5.0 was driving westbound, crossed the wide median, and pulled me over. I don’t think he had me on radar, otherwise I’d probably have been arrested.

Before he pulled me over, right as I saw him crossing the median, I slowed down to 55. It takes forever to slow down to 55 when you’re going that fast and, once I was down to 55, it felt so slow like I could get out and walk.

I was soooo relieved he let me off with just a warning.

I think he let me off because about 30 minutes earlier an elderly couple driving a Chevy Suburban and pulling an Airstream trailer had a bad accident. A single vehicle accident, the Suburban and trailer rolled over about 5 or 6 times. I pulled over to tend to them, they were okay, just a little nicked up, and she was going into shock. I stayed with them until a patrolman arrived on scene. The first words out of his mouth were, “I’m sorry it took me so long to arrive, I’m the only one on duty…”

I remembered those words as I got back into my car.

IIRC the couple were from Ohio and their first names were Bill and Edith. They were wearing seatbelts. They were very lucky to not be injured.

38

God yes. A HUGE break. Young and dumb and driving so drunk I can’t see. Intelligently, <sarcasm> I pull into someone’s front yard to sleep. Cop comes and not only do I puke all over the poor guy, I am carrying a concealed weapon in my purse, and some amphetamines. Young and dumb.

They tried to breathalyzer me, but I kept needing to puke.

I go off with a ticket for unsafe lane change and going to fast for conditions. Mind, this was years and years and years ago when a good lawyer could plead down a DUI. His defense? I’d honestly never had so much as a ticket in my whole life.

And they apparently decided to ignore the weapon and drugs. Although they did confiscate the drugs.

39

Got pulled over 30 years ago in Calgary (educated, illuminated, professional police force) for speeding by a significant amount.
Cop walks up to the truck, spots my passenger (young fella who was working for me at the time) not wearing a seat belt and asks him why not. Dumbass passenger responds that he did not believe the state had a right to dictate safety terms to him.
Cop goes back to his car while I explain to my passenger the potential pitfalls of mouthing off to people who carry guns.
Cop comes back to the truck and asks me how much money I have on me.
What???
I tell him $20. He says good, pull it out.
I can’t believe I am getting shook down by a cop, it just doesn’t happen, and for $20?? WTF??
I pull out the $20 and tells me to give it to my passenger.
I slowly hand the $20 to Darren and the cop says good.
Then he hands Darren a seatbelt ticket for $40 and says “Have a good day”
Pretty original way to fine us both a little bit for our infractions, but no points off my license.
I still chuckle about that one when I think of it.

40

Was once let off by a tow-truck driver that was acting on behalf of the cops, does that count?

I was 19 and driving through upstate NY on interstate 90. While trying to make some time on a flat and deserted highway, I unfortunately got pinched for doing 82mph in a 65mph zone. At the time, I had a Canadian drivers’ license and was driving a Canadian-plated car (both from Alberta). I figured this meant that the NY state DOT basically had no way to collect, and I was right.

…unless they catch you speeding in the same state years later.

This time around I’m about 22 years old, and the ticket has clearly gone to court and the fine has roughly tripled due to late payment fees and court fees.
I get caught speeding on I-90 again, and the cop isn’t satisfied with just handing me another ticket. He lets me know that my car is going to be impounded until I can pay the (now outrageous) fine, the newest speeding ticket he handed me, and the impound fees to release my car from car jail. All told, I remember I was looking at about $1,000 US in various fines (about $1,400 Canadian) back when I earned about $9 an hour and was quite pleased by that.

I plead with the cop, telling him that I can’t stay in Bumhump, NY until I scrape together the money for the tickets and fees, I don’t have any money for a motel and I’m about 4 hours drive away from anything that resembles home. “I guess you’re sleeping under an overpass, then” was the response I got. I scramble to get my toothbrush and a change of clothes out of the trunk before the tow truck shows up.

Now the tow truck arrives, and the driver begins to hook up my car. I hop into the cab, at least hoping for a ride to the nearest town/impound and a payphone.
On the seat, between the driver and the passenger, I see the driver’s clipboard. Figuring that this was my last chance at freedom, I put all of my cash under the clip on his board (like $42 US or something pathetic like that) and I don’t say a word.
The tow truck driver finishes hooking up my car and gets into the cab. I see him look at the money, and he doesn’t say a word either.
We pull up to the impound (which in this small town was also the tow company’s secured lot), and he stops the truck outside of the open gate. We both pause for a minute, and he summons me into the tow company’s office. I only hear one snippet of his conversation with the manager in a closed office, but it’s enough to make my year; “If he gets caught again, this is on you (the tow truck driver).”

The driver comes out of the manager’s office, looks me right in the eyes and says; “keep to the secondary highways, do the speed limit, and never come back.”