Worst ticket you got out of

[acindrich]

So what is the worst ticket you got out of? I got nabbed for speeding, passing on a double yellow line, eluding an officer and wreckless driving but was let go with a warning and a full pair of Depends only becuase they were looking for someone who threw a brick through a truckers windshield and the trucker initially thought it was me. I was on my way home from work, I was a teenager, was actually obeying all laws but started pulling away from the "pesky tailgater" that ended up being a sheriff who was tailing me, lights off, with the trucker inside to see if he could ID me. Anyways, I finally see some lights, pull over and am suddenly surrounded by four of the State's finest and two draw their weapons. That's where the Depends came in handy. After a bit of a lecture they were more interested in continuing the search so they let me go. I meandered home at like 15 mph as I was too freaked out to go any faster.

[mir3ken]

144 mph, expired tags, no front plate - two lane highway - trying to pass long string of cars. Speed trap. Paid $100 to one of those traffic attorneys and it WORKS - she got everything thrown out.

[SPF2245]

In '97 I bought a new Z28 SS, in less then a month added all the fun bolt ons. One summer night got a wild hair to go out and check out the local strip with a friend. Sitting at a red light, a couple girls in bikinis walked by and admired the car. Well, let's just say testosterone got the best of me...and quicker then you can say "stupid", the traction control came off and I dumped the clutch at 4K. Well, it was impressive...the noise, the smoke and twin stripes woke up the whole area.

I cruised about 2 more blocks aftwards and came to a side street off the strip and made a left turn. The rear tires, still hot from 250ft of pavement markings made the classic chirp going across the painted crosswalks lines. Before I could even blink, the Po-Po was on my arse. I get stopped and get cited for audible tire noise and 27 in a 25 zone. He didn't see my exibition of speed contest earlier...but heard it.

I went to court, and provided the judge a copy of the owners manual and window sticker. After some explaining the skip shift and traction control features of the car, I convinced the judge that my car was at 1100 RPMS with traction control...so there was no way my car could have made any tire noise because I was out of the power band of the motor...guess what, case dismissed.

[SPF2245]

And then there was 1998 (I'm a slow learner), I'm out in my '64 Impala SS conv't, it's late night during the summer, I drop the top and get a shake at McDonalds. Leaving the drive-thru...I allow myself the fun of opening up the stroked 454 crate motor. After leaving a solid 200 ft of rubber...I look behind me. Through the smoke is the classic flashing blues and reds of fear. Seems I hadn't noticed the cop in the drive-thru behind me...ooops.

He questions my sanity, I tell him the motor was running hot and stumbled out of the drive-thru. Not wanting to stall the motor, I told him I fed it too much gas. He questions me about taking him for an idiot. I tell him the car runs hot sitting and stalls. He tells me to start the motor. Only the god of horse-power know how, but in trying to re-lite the motor...it bogged, farted and fired and stalled in less then 3 seconds. I tried two more times and it barely stayed running. Long story short...he gave me a very stern warning and told me to get the car fixed. My hands still shake at how nervious I was at that one.

[Ron61]

I guess it would be a speed exhibition ticket in my own driveway. Cop had followed me 20 miles waiting for me to do something. When I turned into my driveway I chirped then tires and left about a 1 foot double black mark. Boy, was that guy fast getting out of the car and running up to my garage. He was really in a bad mood about something, cops have off days too, and jumped all over me for making him waste all that time following me. I made him follow me all that time!!! Anyway as he was telling me what kind of fine I was going to get I told him I was on my property and would go to court with it. He blew up, called me a liar and told me I was still on city property. I just asked him to walk back down to the gate with me. We did and I asked him to look up my fence line which is about 160' long at that point. He did and asked me why the upper part of the fence was so much farther out than where we were. I told him I had set the fence back just over 2' feet so the water meter would be on the outside for the guy to read an if he would look at the black marks he could easily see by the surveyors marker about 25' to the other side of us that I was on my property. He then said I could have put that marker there as if I had access to those type of stakes with the stamped # in them. I told him to call the court house, it was recorded and that I had a site map also. He finally stood there a few seconds, put the ticket book away and asked if he could look at the car. I told him yes, I was driving the 69 Cobra at the time and after looking at it for a few minutes he told me he had the wrong car. I guess some red Dodge Charger had been reported by several people for reckless driving and since mine was red that was close enough. But he did know cars and asked me if that was one of the ones that Ford sold so they could race them in NASCAR. I saw him several times after that and he would always wave.

Ron

[PurpleVenom]

75 in a 55 at 1am after a football game in Louisiana. Luckily, my DA friend got that one wiped.

[392cobra]

Because I always obey all traffic laws,I don't have a tale to tell.

[Jamo]

Several stories given the amount of driving I do...

Arizona in the mid-1980s. Triple digits in a Z-28 on a big two-lane between Parker on the Colorado and I-10 to go into Phoenix for a federal court hearing. Come up on an ambulance with flashing lights going in the same direction, but only doing 85-90. Nobody else around, so I passed it, giving it a wide berth. Cop pulls me over about 10 miles later and starts yelling at me regarding speeding and impeding an emergency vehicle (the ambulance passes us and the prick in the passenger seat gives me a wave, smiling). I decided I had not a damn thing to lose, so I argued with the cop about "impeding" the ambulance since I was going at least 20mph faster and asked to see the Arizona statute he was relying on. (It helped that I explained that I represented the employer in a strike back in Parker since some of his buddies were catching hell from the pickets...so I was one of the good guys.) Well, the statute at that time didn't say you couldn't pass the an emergency vehicle. Made a deal..told him he knew where I was going to be for the next month (the strike) so check it out with his superiors and/or the AG...double or nuthin: Either I get two counts for speeding and impeding the emergency vehicle if I'm wrong, or I get nuthing. Got a letter a few weeks later, warning me about hell and damnation if I get caught speeding again, but that no citation would be forthcoming, and that the law would likely be revised. It was.

[Jamo]

A few years ago...

Coming back from the Coast on 41 in the Audi 4.2 A6...went through Kettleman City, noting a deputy car in the Burger King parking lot which appeared vacant. Opened it up on the elevated two-lane through Boswell's ranches...well over a 100 and no cars around...but then I see flashing lights way back there. Nowhere really to go, so I reign it in. I pull into a Boswell ranch station across the canal and he comes in behind me. Takes my license and registration and goes back to his cruiser for about 10 minutes. comes back and dumps my license and registration into my lap, and yells at me for driving so damn fast even if the road is empty. He then assplains that he left his ticket book back at the station and that nobody is available to bring it to him, nor can he call the CHP in to write a ticket, because of a big accident on I-5 and everyone's up there. Walks back to his car and fishtails dust as he heads back to Kettleman City.

I drove the rest of the way to Fresno veeeeery slowly.

[Maricopa]

18 yrs old driving my '66 Mustang coupe. The old I-10 entrance ramps in Phx were very short and very steep, I nail it hard and pop up to freeway level going 75 or so....only to come up alongside and then pass a motorcycle cop (sigh). He passes me, pulls over and waves at me to pull in behind him. He's walking back, not looking happy, and just before he gets to me turns and runs back to the bike. After a few seconds on the mic he comes back and says, "If I didn't just get a call I'd be giving you the biggest damn ticket you ever saw!" Then he runs back to the bike and tears off.

I drove a different way to work for weeks.

[Wayne Maybury]

Many years ago, I was taking my buddy to pick up his girl friend on a Frdiay night in my hi-po '65 Mustang. We had to take a street that was a little bit more than a quarter mile long with a traffic light at one end and a stop with a dead end at the other end. An officer was stationed with his radar near the stop sign waiting for people to exceed the 20 mph limit on this side street. I was going about 30, maybe 35 when he jumps out of his car and pulls me over. He nails me for 31 in a 20 zone, I tell him that he should give me a break, no deal. At that time tickets were mailed not given to the driver.

I am pissed. We go around the block, pick up my buddy's girlfriend and head back around the block and now take the same street in the opposite direction. The cop is still there so I proceed at 19 mph all the way along. The light is green but I can't speed up since he has the radar on me. The light goes yellow, I pop it into neutral to glide just as a family sedan speeds up in the opposite direction to run the yellow light. I look in the mirror and the flashing lights come on a quarter mile behind me but the cop doesn't stop the speeder, he pulls up behind me and wants to give me another ticket. I call him every name in the book and tell him that he doesn't even know how the radar jumped from me to the other faster car. He stays calm and says that I will get the ticket in the mail. I get in my car, the light goes green, and I smoke the Goodyears. The last I saw of the cop car was the flashing lights getting smaller and smaller in the mirror. Believe or not, I never got a ticket, not even the first one for which I was guilty. I was young, crazy, and very lucky.

Wayne

[Joe Wicked]

I have gotten out of more than I got, but the one that really got me hot was when I had just bought my 03 Mustang GT. I was going 45-50 in a 40 and saw the cop come sliding out of a parking lot smoking the tires with the lights on. This is on a freeway access road and the cars behind me end up wrecking trying not to hit him. I pull over and come up yelling at me and screaming that I made him cause that wreck. I just looked at him. The then spit out do you know why I stopped you, I figured it was for the speed, but said No. He then said he has reason to believe my inspection sticker is not valid. He runs the serial number on it, comes back good, matches the car, etc. Then proceeds to get a tape measure and measure my bumper height (car is bone stock, less than a month old), check blinkers, hazards, continue this on until we do a full safety inspection right there in the parking lot. He has me rev it up, stock mufflers, so it isn't loud, but he writes a ticket for excessive noise and license plate light is too dim. I take it to court and show the judge that I just bought the car and it is stock from the factory. He makes me wait until the end of the day so he can hear it, and agrees, it is not loud. The ticket was right at 12:00 noon on a sunny day, so the judge even said that is ridiculous. You can't tell how bright the light is.

[Bobcat]

Had my restored 63 1/2 R code Galaxie out for a drive on a spring afternoon a few years ago and as I turned off the main drag onto a sparsely populated residential street ( where most people go 45 to 50 ) , I was in 1st gera and a gremlin made my foot go all the way to the floor and then grab 2nd at about 6700 rpm ... tires spinning , twin 4 barrels sucking air and the Walker Race Magnums working on the exhaust . I brought it down to 35 as I came to the houses .. and looked up to see a Deputy coming up behind me fast . He tucked in on my bumper and followed me for about half mile and then pulled me . Said he could hear me two blocks away ... asked for my license etc , looked at me and said " aren`t you too old for this sort of thing ? " I almost said give me a damn ticket ... but kept my mouth shut . He then said he was a car guy and don`t do this again or I was dead meat . My answer was ... thank you officer !

[trularin]

Dang, you all are a bunch of wild people.

I'm with Fred. I don't do nuttin.

[Dan40]

A word to the wise. When you see a yellow curve arrow with the little square sign below it saying "safe speed" 35. That is NOT just the "safe" speed, it is also the legal speed limit thru the curve. So if you take that sweeper at 138mph, you are 103 over!!!
Oh! the question was, "got out of............" NEVER MIND, Did not get out of.

[joe g]

Well this one happened just recently with my Cobra and i admit I WAS STUPID
Was sitting at a light in left lane, third car in line--- 4 lane road, 2 my direction 2opposite way. Light turns green traffic moves -- left lane has 2 old geezers ahead of me,so i swing into right lane and get on it--what was right behind me-- a fully marked state tropper-i hear on his loud speaker-KEEP THAT UP AND YOUR CAR WILL GET FLATBEDDED AND YOU ARRESSTED! Now i always llok for cruisers when i drive, but my mind was some where else that day, was taking a ride after work to destress!!
He pulled up next to me rolled down his window, i yelled sorry and thank you and he drove away.
joeg

[392cobra]

Originally Posted by trularin

Dang, you all are a bunch of wild people.

I'm with Fred. I don't do nuttin.

PSST Tru
You think anybody bought it ???

[Wes Tausend]

...

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

...

[DRAGON]

When I was in college I was crusing the town in my 1955 T-Bird looking for a drag race when two kids in an Opal Cadet station wagon keep wanting me to race them at every stop light. Finally, when I got to one where there was no traffic around except them I took them on. I was two blocks away before they even got across the first intersection but I heard that dreaded sound of a siren. I pulled over right away and got my license and registration out and handed them to the city policeman when he walked up to my window. He said, "95 mph in a 35 mph zone, however, I saw what happen and I would have probably done the same as you did. Take it easy, especially in this neighborhood because the neighbors have been complaining about speeders." He took off after the Opal Cadet and was writing them a ticket when I went by and they probably never even got up to the speed limit. My T-Bird had a 392 Chrysler Firepower Hemi with 4 deuces, a mild cam and 11" Dodge truck clutch. My best time in the quarter was in the high 10's back in 1966.

[Ron61]

Dragon,

That is one nice set up you have in the T-Bird. That story reminds me of when I was working and many times in the middle of the night I had to go to downtown Redding to send bad circuit packs back to the labs for analysis. I drove the 69 Cobra back then once in a while and no matter what time of night or morning I was coming home, some guy in a 69 Charger with a 440 six pack would be waiting at the stop light on top of the hill leaving town. I was always tired and ignored him until one night around 3AM after a 26 hour shift, I was not in a good mood and when I pulled up there coming home to pack to go to Ohio, there he was. He must have camped there waiting for any time I came that way. He was yelling at me for being afraid to run a real car and I told him I was tired and I was not a drag racer. After a few minutes of his yelling I told him ok, lets see how that pile of crap runs. He pulled me by at least 3 car lengths as I couldn't get traction, but once I got to 3rd I passed him as if he was standing still and just ran away from him. I thought that was the end of it but after getting on the freeway and driving along at about 60/65 I heard this noise and it was him again wanting to run from that speed. We took off as there was no traffic around here at that time of night back then and I just left him so far behind all I could see was what looked like one headlight with a bunch of red and blue lights. So I pulled over and stopped and a couple of minutes later here cam,e the charger and the patrolman. The patrolman came up to me and asked me why I was setting there and I told him the whole story and that i was just tired of that guy and had told him we would find out just how well his car ran and it was stupid and I was ready to take my punishment. The patrolman just laughed and told me to go home and get packed and he would see to it that I was never bothered by that guy again. He did ask about my car and looked it over and tole me that he was just a little ways behind us but that I pulled away so fast he didn't even know what color my car was and he could catch the Dodge. I don't know what he did to that guy, but that Dodge was never seen by anyone around here again.

Ron