How about ridiculous tickets stories thread?

[LesL60]

I have been driving for 36 years without a ticket or accident; not that I haven't been pulled over and deserved a ticket or two. I'm not good looking or charming, so it must be pity or revulsion that induces the LEOs to let me go.

That said, wife and I were in Austin, TX last month on business and had a free day. I had a rented four door Jeep and we headed to the LBJ Ranch, since I'm a fan of the character, though not the politics.

Driving on the state road in front of the ranch to the entrance from the park exit, the speed limit is 45mph. A trooper was coming the other way and as she passed I saw her wheel around behind me and hit the lights. I pulled over immediately and assumed she'd pass me, but she pulled in behind me. She came to the window and I had my documents out. She asked me if I knew what the speed limit was and I said it was 45. I asked her how fast I was going and she said 48! All I could do was remain composed and let her have her way with me.

She came back with a written warning. I'm certain the rest of Texas isn't so strictly enforced.

What stories do you have of funny, ridiculous, or stupid traffic stops.

 

[Kazza]

Thank your lucky stars - it was only a warning

Some of them will give you tickets (and by law THEY CAN) for 1km over

 

[Erci]

3 miles over... wow!

Anyway.. I've got a good one!:

This was way back when I used to live in Brooklyn and was in my early 20's..

I was making a left at a traffic light. I let the oncoming traffic pass (one of the vehicles was a cop car and it made a right onto the same road I was about to take). I made the left turn, which put me behind the cop. Speed limit on this road was 30mph. The officer was moving at ~22. I kept my distance, but he kept engine braking...

After about 1/4 mile, he pulled into the median and I finally passed... he immediately pulled in behind me and put his lights on. I pulled over right away wondering what the hell the problem was.

This is happening at about 11pm.. so very dark. He walks over to my window, sporting a very unfriendly scowl and through his teeth says "license and registration". This is where I screwed up... I wanted to ask him to use his flash light because it was totally dark there, but being a kid I was nervous and phrased it very poorly.. I said "Excuse me, office, do you have a light?" :rof:

This did not go over well. He said "WHAT?!" then looked at his partner standing on the other side of the car and, never easing up his scowl, said "Can you believe this guy just asked me for a light?!"

At this point, I decided it would be best to STFU to avoid ending up in handcuffs.

15 minutes later he came back with my papers and handed me 2 tickets. One for following too closely and the other for not wearing a seatbelt which was on the whole time!!

I looked at the tickets and said "Excuse me, sir, but my seatbelt was on.. it still is". He leaned into the car, undid the seatbelt and walked away

::: but wait there's more! :::

So I went to court to tell my story honestly and hope for the best. The cop did show up and I told my story exactly as it happened to the judge.
The officer read his report.. said that I was way too close to him and at one point he could not see my headlights which is when he pulled me over.

The judge made me pay for "following", but dropped the seatbelt ticket.

As I exited the courtroom, being a dumb kid, I decided to politely confront the officer.. wasn't even sure what I was going to say, but I walked over to him and said "Excuse me.." at which point he put both of his hands up and yelled "stop harassing me!"

^ that's not a smiley.. that's an actual photo of me when he said that >

The end!

 

[PosterFZ6]

Ticket?

No sir, no way Jose! I am a good boy.

Ya'll bunch of hooligans!!!

 

[red_rock_beetle]

I have been driving for 36 years without a ticket or accident; not that I haven't been pulled over and deserved a ticket or two. I'm not good looking or charming, so it must be pity or revulsion that induces the LEOs to let me go.

That said, wife and I were in Austin, TX last month on business and had a free day. I had a rented four door Jeep and we headed to the LBJ Ranch, since I'm a fan of the character, though not the politics.

Driving on the state road in front of the ranch to the entrance from the park exit, the speed limit is 45mph. A trooper was coming the other way and as she passed I saw her wheel around behind me and hit the lights. I pulled over immediately and assumed she'd pass me, but she pulled in behind me. She came to the window and I had my documents out. She asked me if I knew what the speed limit was and I said it was 45. I asked her how fast I was going and she said 48! All I could do was remain composed and let her have her way with me.

She came back with a written warning. I'm certain the rest of Texas isn't so strictly enforced.

What stories do you have of funny, ridiculous, or stupid traffic stops.

first off let me say i hope you dont have a bad taste in your mouth for texas now,
most officers arent that way, secondly, the only different story i have is the first ticket i received, 96 in a 60. the DA was trying hard not to laugh when she read I was driving a red beetle:Flash:

 

[motojoe122]

I was headed back to Corpus Christi, TX from CA.....
I dont remember what fwy it was, 10 maybe. Just inside from El Paso, I was following an Escalade at a pretty good clip, my truck only registered to 85mph...it was buried. Anyhow, after a day and a half of driving I had the tunnel vision and barely caught the Trooper headed the opposite direction. I looked in the side mirror and noticed him make the u turn and come my direction. He caught up to us and passed me to get behind the Escalade....I'm safe, I thought.....NOPE!!! He hit the lights and then I saw his arm come up and point to the side of the road...He got us both, double whammy!!
After giving him my info he asked me how fast I was going. I said, 80(speed limit was 70)...He said, No, how about 87...I said, Really, I didnt think the truck would go that fast...Once he saw my ID, he told me to pay better attention to the speed limit and who I choose to follow. I got off pretty easy on that one, he wrote the ticket for inexcess of the speed limit.
He was pleasant to deal with and picked up my sarcasm. With a Have a nice day, I was on my way.

 

[SweaterDude]

I was headed back to Corpus Christi, TX from CA.....
I dont remember what fwy it was, 10 maybe. Just inside from El Paso, I was following an Escalade at a pretty good clip, my truck only registered to 85mph...it was buried...

I have an 88 GMC that registers to 85, but we have a friend thats a cop and he borrowed the truck one day and when he got back, he said "Ain't no way in Hell that **** truck only does 85mph." so naturally we followed him out to I-840 at 3:30 the next morning and found out. That's when the lights came on.
Officer - "Sir, do you know how fast you were going?"
Me - "85ish."
Officer - "Don't give me no attitude now, y'hear."
Me - "Alright, Will, just tell me how fast so I can get home and go sleep."
Officer Will - "133mph":rockon:

not that i was actually going to get a ticket. im just glad there wasn't a statee that just happened to be on the same stretch of road at the same time.

 

[Erci]

I was headed back to Corpus Christi, TX from CA.....
I dont remember what fwy it was, 10 maybe. Just inside from El Paso, I was following an Escalade at a pretty good clip, my truck only registered to 85mph...it was buried. Anyhow, after a day and a half of driving I had the tunnel vision and barely caught the Trooper headed the opposite direction. I looked in the side mirror and noticed him make the u turn and come my direction. He caught up to us and passed me to get behind the Escalade....I'm safe, I thought.....NOPE!!! He hit the lights and then I saw his arm come up and point to the side of the road...He got us both, double whammy!!
After giving him my info he asked me how fast I was going. I said, 80(speed limit was 70)...He said, No, how about 87...I said, Really, I didnt think the truck would go that fast...Once he saw my ID, he told me to pay better attention to the speed limit and who I choose to follow. I got off pretty easy on that one, he wrote the ticket for inexcess of the speed limit.
He was pleasant to deal with and picked up my sarcasm. With a Have a nice day, I was on my way.

Had the same thing happen to me (I too was the 2nd vehicle).. ended up with "careless driving" ticket.

 

[fb40dash5]

When I was 16, I managed to get a ticket barely a week after getting my full license. 52 in a 25 zone, right at the edge of a town. Went to my court date, managed to get PBJ for my first offense, paid my fine, and went on my way. Nothing on my record to skyrocket my insurance, yay!

So I'm driving home from the courthouse, 3 counties away. Get to within 1 miles of home, and I use a little side road in this town to cut back to the main road from a back way. I stop at this stop sign, then proceed to sit there about 10 seconds changing CDs. I pull away, make it about 300', and see red and blues in the mirror, and this cop hits the siren... I figure they're headed somewhere, so I pull into a parking lot. Nope, the cop pulls in behind me. "License and registration, blah blah, do you no why I pulled you over?" "No officer, afraid I don't." "Well you ran that stop sign back there, didn't even slow down, you almost hit me, and I clocked you at 45mph in this 25 zone." "Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.... ohhhhhhhhhkay, sure...."

Needless to say, my parents were not very happy, nor convinced of my side of the story. My dad told me if I wanted any chance of him believing me, I better go to court and tell the truth... I told him there was no point, the judge was just going to accuse me of calling the cop a liar. I went to court, the cop told her side, I told my side, and the judge looks at me and says "Son, are you calling this police officer a liar?" Zure enough, got my PBJ revoked, got slammed on the fine and points for "running the stop sign", and cost me a *********** fortune to get insurance for the next 3 years. Yay.

My dad finally believed me about 5 years later when one of his friends told him this story about getting a total BS ticket from this butch cop in the same town.

 

[PosterFZ6]

not a speeding ticket but parking one

This happened few months ago.

I commuted to my school on my Suzuki Boulevard C50.

Previous owner de-badged the bike of all of its Suzuki or Boulevard logos.

He wanted to make it look like a Harley. I hated that everybody always complemented me on my nice "Harley". I have nothing against HDs, I just don't like to pretend that my bike is one. But I was too cheap to buy all the logos from a dealer. So I just left the bike as it was.

So I have been parking in that same spot for over 1.5 years now. Never managed to get a parking ticket. I always thought that I could park there. Untill one day I come to see that I actually got a ticket.

I was pissed, afterall who wants to throw away $65?

Upon closer inspection of the ticket I see that the parking maid/copper wrote out the ticked to a "Black Harley Davidson".

I contested the ticket on the grounds that I don't even own a Harley Davidson bike and the officer must have simply misidentified my bike/licence plate.

Ticked revoked.

"puts on sunglasses"

 

[Gelvatron]

This happened few months ago.

I commuted to my school on my Suzuki Boulevard C50.

Previous owner de-badged the bike of all of its Suzuki or Boulevard logos.

He wanted to make it look like a Harley. I hated that everybody always complemented me on my nice "Harley". I have nothing against HDs, I just don't like to pretend that my bike is one. But I was too cheap to buy all the logos from a dealer. So I just left the bike as it was.

So I have been parking in that same spot for over 1.5 years now. Never managed to get a parking ticket. I always thought that I could park there. Untill one day I come to see that I actually got a ticket.

I was pissed, afterall who wants to throw away $65?

Upon closer inspection of the ticket I see that the parking maid/copper wrote out the ticked to a "Black Harley Davidson".

I contested the ticket on the grounds that I don't even own a Harley Davidson bike and the officer must have simply misidentified my bike/licence plate.

Ticked revoked.

"puts on sunglasses"

Well played I'd say "lawyered"

 

[lomax]

When I was 16, I managed to get a ticket barely a week after getting my full license. 52 in a 25 zone, right at the edge of a town. Went to my court date, managed to get PBJ for my first offense, paid my fine, and went on my way. Nothing on my record to skyrocket my insurance, yay!

So I'm driving home from the courthouse, 3 counties away. Get to within 1 miles of home, and I use a little side road in this town to cut back to the main road from a back way. I stop at this stop sign, then proceed to sit there about 10 seconds changing CDs. I pull away, make it about 300', and see red and blues in the mirror, and this cop hits the siren... I figure they're headed somewhere, so I pull into a parking lot. Nope, the cop pulls in behind me. "License and registration, blah blah, do you no why I pulled you over?" "No officer, afraid I don't." "Well you ran that stop sign back there, didn't even slow down, you almost hit me, and I clocked you at 45mph in this 25 zone." "Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm.... ohhhhhhhhhkay, sure...."

Needless to say, my parents were not very happy, nor convinced of my side of the story. My dad told me if I wanted any chance of him believing me, I better go to court and tell the truth... I told him there was no point, the judge was just going to accuse me of calling the cop a liar. I went to court, the cop told her side, I told my side, and the judge looks at me and says "Son, are you calling this police officer a liar?" Zure enough, got my PBJ revoked, got slammed on the fine and points for "running the stop sign", and cost me a *********** fortune to get insurance for the next 3 years. Yay.

My dad finally believed me about 5 years later when one of his friends told him this story about getting a total BS ticket from this butch cop in the same town.

Almost the exact same thing happened to me. I was 16 coming home from work real late, no traffic. I stopped at the stop light and waited for at least three minutes. The light turned green and I went. BTW: this was in a VW dune buggy so there was not excessive speed. On came the red lights and the, "What did you run that stop light for?" Went to court and the judge simple said it was my work against his. Ye I got the ticket and the points. So this does seem to go on regularly.

 

[FinalImpact]

Best story of catch and release goes like this: I was working for AAMCO transmissions where we diagnose, repair, and rebuild transmissions and automobile drive-train components.

On a test drive to verify the customers complaint I needed to exercise the full potential of the beast below me, a 454c.i. Camaro SS with TH400 trans and locking rear end. I was driving down a 4 lane highway with a limit of 45mph and had assessed that the trans shifts nicely in all ranges. Now for the load test to which the customer said the transmission slips and chatters during gear change. I pulled into a parking lot to turn around; returning to the highway I let some cars pass, do another mirror check and the coast is clear so I come to a complete. From here; I nailed the gas and lit up both tires through 1st and 2nd gear feeling the rear end hop and chatter as the suspension was not able to handle the load. Looking in my mirror I had colored the air blue and lit it with flashing lights! (Bad sign!) :spank: :spank:

I pull over and the officer tells me I was being reckless. I said, "I just put a new transmission in this car (flashing him my AAMCO jacket) and the customer said it slips and chatters and that we did a poor job. So, no I wasn’t being reckless. I meant to do that.” He said, “what?”
Officer, I know that’s incorrect because it’s the tires that slip as this car has too much power and the guy needs to drive it more civil and it should be fine!

He shook his head and let me go. I was laughing and grinning all the way back to the shop! I so deserved that ticket. . . And yes it was an unmarked car that came out of the same lot I turned around in. . .

 

[pookamatic]

Re: not a speeding ticket but parking one

I got pulled over while driving my dad's car when I was 16. Cop said I spun my tires (they chirped a bit while making a right turn from a stop), and he had to do "like 45 mph" to catch up to me in a 25 mph zone. I ended up getting a careless driving for about $100. If I was longer in the tooth at the time, I would have contested it.

I also couldn't find proof of insurance. Because of this, they had the car towed and issued two extra fines totaling 1,000 dollars! These two were something silly like, "Not having insurance" (~$700) and "Not having proof of insurance" (~$300).

As luck would have it, my friends were driving by when the car was getting towed at the light where I stopped. I just got in their car, sobbing like a kid who's dad is going to kill him.

Of course, we did have insurance. I forget what the mixup was but we went to court and easily had the 1K in fines thrown out. In the end, it cost me about $155 for the fine and tow charge. Also, I'm happy to report my dad did not in fact, murder me. :thumbup: