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Worst? Probably a near
DUI.
Second runner-up:
In the early '70's, I got pulled over for a routine dead tail-light in my hometown.
Normally this would have been just a warning, but in this case the officer stated that, according to the plate-check info, there was a warrant out for my arrest. I couldn't think of any reason off-hand, it didn't make any sense to me and I told him such.
Upon further checking, he said that it appeared to be a vague parking ticket violation in Minnesota. This still didn't immediately register and I told him I hadn't been in Minnesota. So he dropped it and issued a tail-light repair citation.
The next day, as I pondered the event, I happened to remember that I had been in Minnesota about 3, 4 years prior. I was working in a ND border town and my rented room was just across the state line. Man, they must be persistent.
It was a winter like we just had this year. I was working for
Wright Tree Service out of Des Moines, Iowa. We were clearing brush and trees from high tension power lines. The truck kept getting stuck, no way to get close to the work area. Snow was waist deep and it was a b***h to drag wood to the chipper. The city streets were also suffering for lack of area to store snow. So the city piled it in curb-side parking areas. Except for snow routes which allowed no over-nite parking every other night.
The net result was that there was soon very limited legal over-nite parking within miles of my room. So after a long day of climbing tall trees with a chainsaw and dragging brush, I couldn't rest. Legally, that is.
Finally, out of desperation, I took a chance on a parking ticket on a snow route curb. Of course I immediately got a ticket by morning.
The ticket irritated me so much I just left it on the windshield. All day. And the next night.
Lo and behold, I never got another ticket... for the next 2 weeks.
I suppose from a slight distance, it looked like my car was "already done".
Close-up, the ticket was becoming faded, unreadable and wrinkled.
When I went home for a week-end break, I still left the lucky-charm ticket on the window. Unfortunately it tore and blew off on the highway. Shortly, a Sunday phone call informed me that the contract was cancelled for the winter. I never went back. That was in about 1968.
I still worry that, if I get pulled over in "persistent" Minnesota, they'll get me for that $2 ticket plus interest, for 40+ years.
Wes
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