As some of you know I was a cop in my former life. Years ago there was an armed robbery at a Pizza Hut and I made the scene after other officers had been there for a while. It was my district so I was already pissed off the other cops were there before me, and this Pizza Hut was a place that I often ate for free (their decision, not mine..and I normally tipped the cost of the meal). So I get the description of the perp and begin my search of the area. After about an hour I followed up on a report of a man fitting the description, oddly I find him walking casually down the street, but with a different shirt. I pull over in front of him in a very non-aggressive manner and ask him to step to my car, he then breaks into a sprint in the opposite direction. After an initial stumble I chased him as all sorts of things were going through my head, most importantly, it was an armed robbery and he probably had a gun. Everything happened so fast until I wasn't able to radio for help, adrenaline took over and here I was running at full speed after this dude and reluctantly catching up. Once I was close enough I pushed him in the back hard and he fell, we ended up about a block away from the car. I drew my gun and he assumed the spread eagle position face down on the ground. I radioed other cops and they were there in just a few minutes, enough time to catch my breath. They searched him and he had money and a small amount of crack on him, so we held him for a witness from to Pizza Hut to come by to identify him as the thief. She did. When I walked back to my car I found the .38 on the ground. I didn't know if he deliberately threw it away or if he tried to use it but it slipped out of his hand all I know is, that was the closest I had ever been to getting shot. Fast forward maybe 8 years. I'm in a grocery store with my family and I see him but don't immediately recognize where I know him from. He came up to me and said "remember me?" I didn't until he reminded me of the story. He told me that that arrest turned his life around but that the crack the other officers found was not his, which made sense because some cops were known for that kind of thing. I believed him on both counts. Awkwardly and jokingly I asked him if the gun was his, and he told that me it was and that he was in a bad place back then, and he Thanked God that it slipped out of his pocket. I did too.
One time after murdering a hooker, I was driving out to the delta to dump her body which I had in the trunk. I was still wearing her panties, but I had one of those long wifebeaters on, so you couldn't see them. Anyway, this CHP cop pulls me over because he says that their aircraft got me doing 65 in a 35. Apparently when the highway runs through a rinky dink little town a few miles back up the road the limit dropped. Anywho, we go through the whole license and registration deal, and he asks if he can search my car. I tell him to go ahead, but the trunk is broken. So he pokes around in the back seat and finds the used condoms and a half used roll of duct tape, but nothing illegal by any means. Thankfully he must have believed me about the trunk, because he didn't go back there and press the button. Oh yeah, he also let me off with a warning on the speeding.
I was a lot younger at the time and admitted it was pot because I knew it was. He was able to see it through the front windshield, and we used to smoke all the time. His truck is probably still stinking up the junk yard. Word of advice to everybody: Never admit anything...
Sorry to hear that man. Everyone makes mistakes when they're younger. Why didn't you at least fight the DUI charge, or did you?
I did, but it was essentially my word versus his, and since I was woken up from a nap when this happened, I wasn't very credible. I didn't take any drug test. I would have failed at the time, even though I wasn't under the influence when I was arrested, so there was really no way to prove my innocence.
Hmm, reminds me of the Everybody Loves Raymond episode when Debra gets arrested for DUI. Anyways, when I was little I used to have to go with my dad to the hospital, even when he was on call, because my mom was working over time at her hospital to pay for my brother's reformative school. So one night there is a guy there dying and my dad is the on call doctor, so we jump in the car and speed off to the hospital. On the way there he gets pulled over by a cop, who asks him if he knows how fast he's going. He says yes he is a doctor and it is an emergency, and he shows his ID and everything, but the cop doesn't believe him, gives him a $500 speeding ticket. 2 years later, my dad is on call and once again he receives a late night call to the hospital. We get there, and the very same cop is lying in the bed. Before he even begins to operate, or talk to any of the nurses, he walks up to him and says "Do you know who I am?" the cop says no and he says "I'm the doctor you pulled over and gave a speeding ticket when I was on my way to the hospital, which caused my patient to die." Then the cop remembers, and doesn't even apologize. Man, I hate cops.
I was honest and I got screwed. My lawyer told me that I should have plead the 5th, and that if I'd have used my right to remain silent, she probably could have helped me alot more.
I've been pulled over several times by cops and every time I pretended like I didn't speak English well. Just faked the first accent that came to mind. Told me to stay safe/be careful and got me on my way. The one time I acted like a jerk, dude wrote me a nice ticket. I was gonna contest it in court because he got the color of my car wrong... but opted not to.
Got pulled over for speeding once. They said I was doing 81 in a 65. I was as nice as I could be to the cop, still wrote me a ticket. It was a trooper, so I figured it would be expensive. I went to the court thing, and asked if there was anything I could do to get it reduced. The judge told me, "I can't give legal advice, but this is what I would do." I followed suit and got it reduced to illegally parking on the side of a highway, 50 dollar fine. Sent the check in the next day.:grin: Another time, I ran into the post office to mail out some Christmas presents. Apparently, the front end of my car was about a foot in front of a no parking sign. I get out to my car after about 20 minutes, and find a parking ticket. I was so pissed, I walked right into city hall and asked how to fight it. Basically, I ended up writing a note to the judge of the town I lived in (I had played high school football with his son), and never heard back about the ticket again. That, I guess, means the ticket was waived. I know this because my first story happened after this one, and I never went to jail.
