The last time you got pulled over by law enforcement...

In My Humble Opinion
81

Are you me?

In 30 years of driving I’ve gotten (too) many tickets. All speeding on an interstate highway. All deserved but one. Never been pulled over for any other moving violation, ever. Everyone around me? Maniacs!

Becoming a cop for a few years skewed my ticket to warning ratio tremendously. :smiley:

Since then my actions and demeanor still favor a warning, but not always.
I still end up with a ticket every year or two.

My latest pull-over was Monday this week. Atlanta’s cold snap plus the fact that I haven’t driven my truck in a week or more made sure that my battery was dead.
By the time I’ve gotten charged and going, I’m 45 minutes late.

Like the other sheep, I make my way down I-85 south to Atlanta proper every morning. Naturally, I want to make this stretch as quick as possible, and equally naturally, Pa Kettle is in the left lane going about 51mph, while the rest of us are doing about 65-70.
To my right are cars, and to my left is the wide-open, empty, unused HOV lane where single occupant vehicles are verboten, motorcycles excepted.

I drift left, pass Pa Kettle, and drift right, back where I’m supposed to be.
Looking at the tape later, I just can’t believe my dumb luck, or how fast he caught me, but catch me he did.

Knowing the HOV violation alone would be 150 bucks, I floored it up to over 100 and made for the closest exit, losing him in heavy traffic.

No, not really. :stuck_out_tongue: I dutifully pulled over, making sure to turn on **my **red strobes as well (for safety and visibility;) ). We are on the side of a highway, after all.

He asked if I knew yada, yada, yada, and I told him the truth. Presumably the red lights and dashcam made him ask me who I work for, and I told him.
Very politely he asked if perhaps I could continue my journey a bit slower, and I told him I absolutely could. 62 seconds, start to finish, and no ticket.

He left like a rocket, and a few minutes later I passed him and waved from the middle of the flock as he stood writing a ticket for a yellow Mercedes.

To the DeKalb County officer on Monday (but not the one last year), thanks.
I’ll **try **to slow down. For a while.

82

Not the ‘last’ time I got pulled over but a notable situation.

I was driving to work on a ‘snow day.’ All the schools were closed due to a 2-foot dumping of snow. I was the only one who was supposed to be in that day in our department and I had to go to work.

So, I start out in weather that no one has any business driving in. I live in a populous suburb so there were still plenty of cars on the road. We are all carefully driving along and nobody wants to stop as getting started again is treacherous.

It had, to this point taken me an hour and a half to drive about 25 miles (5 to go!). My knuckes were white and I was regretting my decision to drive in this nonsense by this point.

So, I was just going through an intersection (green light) going straight, was well below the speed limit and was not following anyone closely (because to do so would be insane) when I see flashers behind me. Analysing the situation I think the cop can’t possibly be stopping me, can he? Drive for a bit (cause stopping is dang hazardous) when I realize that it is me.

Roll down the window give my license and insurance. He says my plate is expired. How in the h-e-double hockey stick could he even see that in this weather.

I apologize and say I thought I had renewed for two years not one. Wait about ten minutes for him to write the ticket and come back (it’s snowing harder now, of course). He gives it to me and drives away.

Except now I am stuck. Really stuck. Would have to call a tow truck kinda stuck.

Luckily, some nice men pulled over dug (yes, dug, like with a shovel) me out and got me started again.

I don’t mind the ticket (my fault after all) but why would you pull someone over in that mess? WHY?

83

When I was in college I went to an on-campus concert with one of my sorority sisters and when we came out her car had been towed. She asked the parking lot attendant and he said she had been parked in a handicapped spot. We showed him that there was no posted sign and the snow had not been removed so if there was anything painted on the pavement, it was completely obscured. He agreed that there was no way anyone could have known it was a handicapped spot, and called the campus cops, who voided the ticket and authorized release of her car. Unfortunately, we then had to hike about a mile back to the sorority house in pretty deep snow to get my car and then drive to her parents’ house to get a copy of the registration to then drive back to the impound lot to show ownership so they would give her her car back. That snafu took about five hours total, just because they hadn’t plowed their damn lot.

84

What’s a “HATT”?

85

Husband At The Time

86

Or, ex? :slight_smile:

87

Ah, got it. Thanks.

88

Well, ex now. But not ex at the time. So since there can often be a difference of dynamics between putting up with a situation with someone who is an ex at the time, and someone who was a husband at the time and ex now . . . .

HATT.

(lemme have it. I like thinking of him as something that I once had, but now have given to Goodwilll - or good riddance as it may be.) :cool:

89

Yes’m.

Last I was pulled over, I was compliant and polite. By the time the cop was done asking me questions about where I was headed to, where I was headed from, and whether or not I was aware of the speed limit, and was ready to go, he was smiling. Told me to have a nice day, and got back in his car. No ticket for driving 55 in a 35.

90

One and only one time I’ve got a ticket - I don’t even have my full license yet (and I was 35 years old at the time of this incident … )

My wife and I decided to take a cross country trip, driving from Winnipeg to Vancouver with the kids, visiting her family in the Vancouver area, as well as on Vancouver Island (the farthest west we travelled). She doesn’t like driving long distances, so I did the driving. (As mentioend before, I have/had only my beginners’ at the time (long story), but I was legally allowed to drive as long as another licensed driver (wife) was in the car with me). Trip goes off without a hitch.

Until we get to Vancouver Island. There was a roadblock there where every car was being pulled over and questioned for some reason. Got to me, asked me the usual perfunctory questions, among them …

“Can I see your license and registration?”

I hand them to the nice RCMP officer

“… You do know this license is expired, right?”

:smack: My province changed its renewal deadlines that year, leaving me confused and without a valid license, without my knowledge. We were also as far away from home as we were going to be this trip. He asked for my wife’s license and (after some moments of panic when she couldn’t find it) informed her that she’d be doing the rest of the driving. Needless to say she wasn’t happy with that idea.

I asked my brother-in-law, who we were staying with, where the nearest place to pay the fine was, and did so. On the way back, as soon as we crossed over into Manitoba again, I found the nearest outlet to renew driver’s licenses, and did the rest of the driving (such as it was, only half the day) home.

I still have that ticket given to me by the BC RCMP as a souvenir of the trip, and as my first driving ticket. I would never have suspected it’d be in another province.

So, it doesn’t really match the OP’s requirements of being “pulled over”, as everyone was pulled over in that roadblock, there wasn’t any special reason for me to be, but it was an interesting story.

91

I hate not having cruise control.

For the first 120 miles of my trip I had been diligently going the nighttime speed limit, and then a really bitching song came on the radio. I got excited and was going about 85. Just as it dawns on me that I’m going too fast and need to slow down, I look up to see a freakin’ cop car right there, gunning me.

I think I pulled over within 70 yards of where he was staked out. Got a ticket, technically deserved it, BUT I DIDN’T REALLY DESERVE IT, I WAS TRYING NOT TO SPEED AND IT WAS THE RADIO’S FAULT! :slight_smile:

92

:smiley:

This made me smile and remember a bit from a movie I saw a snippet of on TV once.

This group was fighting a war skirmish out in the field. They were in desperate need of help. This tank finally arrives and gets rid of the enemy. The driver pops out of the tank and he’s a hippie type dude.

“What took you so long?” the leader demanded.
“Hey, dude, not my fault, it was a slow song.” shrugged the driver.

My mom, realizing it was about DRUGS (all tv was about sex, drugs, or rock’n’roll) made me turn the channel.

But it was too late ma, it stuck in my brain!

93

18 years ago, speeding in a school zone…

In my defense, it wasn’t in the town I lived in and was after 8:00, which is when the school day started in the town I lived so I really wasn’t expecting there to be two young ones waiting to cross the street and wasn’t on the lookout (even if they were partially concealed by a tree in the sidewalk.

Bottom line, yea I was exceeding the school zone limit.

94

State trooper hiding behind an overpass in a 55 zone, less than a quarter mile from where the limit goes up to 65, so I was in to the 65 area by the time he hit the lights and stopped me. 3-something in the morning and nobody else in sight. Clocked at 73, got a break and was only written up for 64.

That was the fastest I blew money from an overtime shift. It was spoken for before I even got home.

95

Many years ago I got pulled over at one of those traps where they see how many offenders they can get at once. I was ticketed for not having a seat belt on. I have always been pretty good about wearing mine so I don’t know what was going on for me that day. Probably because I was just running around the corner in a hurry.

I really don’t think people should have to pay money for not wearing a seat belt, so I don’t think I deserved it. But it *is *the law so I guess I did.

96

Two years ago. I believe I was racially profiled; white girl, nice car, bad neighborhood. I was visiting my sister. The officer who pulled me over didn’t even get off of his motorcycle, simply waited for the tag trace to come back, then he drove away without a word, smile, wave, fuck-you or have a nice day. It was annoying, anger-inducing and funny at the same time. As my brother-in-law quipped, I was pulled over for being white in Midtown.

97

I’ve only been pulled over once, three years ago.

It was deserved. The cop told me was doing 42 in a 30 zone, which was accurate.

He was a bit of a jerk - I almost wonder if he was trying to provoke me into an argument so he could write me a bigger ticket. But I’m a strong believer in “Be polite but keep your mouth shut” when dealing with the police from the wrong side.

The ticket ended being $150 IIRC. Oh well. I slow to a crawl on that road now since it’s near the police station and there’s always a bunch of cop cars going up and down it.

98

I got pulled over for speeding, (65 in a 40 and yes, I was guilty and deserved it, I’m the little old lady from anchorage with a lead foot :D). Unfortunately, upon opening my purse to get my DL and registration, (I’d just had the car registered and hadn’t taken the new registration or tags out of my wallet yet from having been in the DMV), I realized that my wallet wasn’t actually IN my purse. I’d taken it out of my purse and left it at home for some weird reason, probably that I was entering stuff in MSMoney or something.

At any rate, the cop gave me the speeding ticket, but didn’t ticket me for the more expensive charges of not having my license or registration (OR new tags) with me. Whew!

The $362.00 speeding ticket was bad enough, the other charges would have brought it up to just under $900.00. That was in either 2002 or 2003.