Stalked

[RSBob]

The Mrs and I went out to dinner last night. On the way out of the small town we were at sat two sheriff cars nose to tail yammering. Neither of them rolled after I went by since I kept an eye on the rear view. Once out of town its a two lane highway posted at 55. After enjoying a margarita or two I decided it would be smart to keep it to the limit even though the highway runs through farm land. When about two miles out I see a pair of headlights slowly closing. I keep my speed while watching. In about 2 mins I recognize the front marker lights of (a cluster of orange dots) of a Crown Vic, the sherriff's ride out here. So I continue at 55 to the Speed Zone 35 ahead sign which is in the middle of the fields and let off the gas, coasting to the 35 zone as he is right on my @$$ as if trying to get me to punch it or at least speed up as we hit the 35 zone. I keep it at 35 and he finally backs off knowing his hunt was ruined. At the traffic circle I go left and he goes right.

Yes I am guilty of driving a sports car and that seemed to be enough.

[Matt Monson]

Nothing better to do in a small town. It's happened to me more than once. And more than once he would have caught me if the night was different. It's not profiling. It's knowing a pattern exists and watching for it. Move on.

[Bill wjw]

Face it---- these cars are cop magnets. I have even been pulled over on a remote stretch of Highway 101 in my 68 912 just because the CHP officer want to look at the car. He said " you don't see many of these" Then he wrote me up for doing 65 in a 55. It had just changed from freeway to Highway in that particular spot.

[Jdub]

Well magnet yeah, but...

My last pullover by a motorcycle officer at a Greenlake 5-way intersection resulted in a long discussion about 911's. You will not be surprised to hear he was sorry he'd sold his.

[douglas bray]

That wasn't stalked. That was overly paranoid.

[RSBob]

That wasn't stalked. That was overly paranoid.

Guilty as charged. If I wasn't it may have been a ticket and points or worse. I think of it as heathy paranoia. This happens to my pal who lives out there whom drives a WRX STi on a regular basis.

[dicklague]

I live near a secton of Muholland Highway in the Santa Mnoica mountains that was 55MPH to 50 years and is now down to 45 mph due to some old maid neighbors....

Any way it has become a wonderful speed trap for the Sheriff and the CHP. I have seen days where there are 2 or 3 cars in a 2 mile stretch!

I have to use this road to go anywhere.

When I am in the Porsche I usually drive 40 MPH just to be double sure......when they see my 911 they seem to be very frustrated that I am not going faster.

In my other car I have a radar detector built in and that goes off all the time. One night at 10 PM they were even using laser in the pitch black night with no lights on the CHP SUV o the side of the road.

It is all about revenue, not safety.

[jlex]

The locals like to look for drunk drivers in this part of PA.
Pulled over once because I failed to use my turn signal (I never do, unless there's a car that needs to know where I'm going). Cop was parked with his lights off.
Another time, was pulled over due to failure to signal a lane change on a 4 lane highway. I hate to waste electrons
I understand that these "violations" technically give them probable cause & an excuse to stick their nose in the car to see if I've been drinking, but it irks me that the pull-overs aren't due to reckless driving because of alcohol consumption but are mere excuses to go on the hunt for a DUI victim. Police-state tactics, IMO. Shame!

[stealthn]

Should have waved a golf club at him.

[Gogar]

What's unfortunate is that he "could have" stopped you for driving the speed limit, deeming it "suspicious."

[stomachmonkey]

Coming home one Saturday night with the soon to be wife.

The corner that I will be making a right on is in a school zone.

There is a gas station on the corner.

As I roll up to the light I spot a cruiser hiding in the shadows of the gas station lot.

I make sure to do a full stop, count 3 seconds, make my turn and boom out he comes.

I pull over, he comes up, I say "good evening officer. not sure why you pulled me over. I signaled and came to a full stop"

Well it seems you did not see the sign.

"The one that says No Turn on Red, 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM, School Days?"

Is that what it says?

"Yes sir, that's what it says"

Wellllll, have a nice night.

[Bill Douglas]

I usually wait until they shoot then return fire

But meanwhile, back in real life, I was driving in a row of traffic. No chance to speed even if I wanted too. And a cop on the side of the road gave me frantic moves to slow down. Duh. I continued in the flow of traffic, we were all a bit under the stated speed limit. And a short while later he was about a meter behind my bumper. Crazy bastard kept this up for 10 minutes before he figured out I wasn't speeding.

[Evans, Marv]

Years ago I was driving my '72 on a 4 lane freeway. A local B&W was on the side as I passed traveling enclosed in a horse shoe formation of cars in front & enclosing me. After we all passed, he started from the side of the road and came up behind me following for awhile and turned on his lights. After I pulled over, he came up to the window on the passenger side. When I asked why he stopped me, he said it was a nice car & that he had a sports car too. I blurted out, "WTF is that why you stopped me?" Before he could answer, I told him I was wiling to take time to drive directly to the station and register a complaint. He apologized & told me to continue on my way.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by jlex

... but it irks me that the pull-overs aren't due to reckless driving because of alcohol consumption but are mere excuses to go on the hunt for a DUI victim. Police-state tactics, IMO. Shame!

Yes. And. No.

Local yocals follow 'wealthy' car from a restaurant/bar for easy pickings.
Need budget revenue and stats.
Try to provoke speeding.
By tailgating........................................ .......
Act like jerks.

Same old story.

[afterburn 549]

Maybe not stalked but "profiled "
Lots of small twn badges watch the bar rooms and such. Is it right NO !
Yes they do do it, and have done it to me.
I was EVEN dragged dwn twn and blew a fat ZERO for the arse hole.
I now wish i had sued .

[Porsche-O-Phile]

And cops wonder why we don't respect them anymore.

[DanielDudley]

Originally Posted by jlex

The locals like to look for drunk drivers in this part of PA.
Pulled over once because I failed to use my turn signal (I never do, unless there's a car that needs to know where I'm going). Cop was parked with his lights off.
Another time, was pulled over due to failure to signal a lane change on a 4 lane highway. I hate to waste electrons
I understand that these "violations" technically give them probable cause & an excuse to stick their nose in the car to see if I've been drinking, but it irks me that the pull-overs aren't due to reckless driving because of alcohol consumption but are mere excuses to go on the hunt for a DUI victim. Police-state tactics, IMO. Shame!

If you get popped for DUI, you are not a victim.

[M.D. Holloway]

Only time I ever got stopped while in the Targa was when I was in a school parking lot on a Saturday, teaching my Son how to drive a stick. Out of no where a cop pulls in. My Son freaks a bit thinking he is going to get arrested. We both get out and the cop meets us.

"Hey Max, how are you?" He says. We know all the cops in the town and several know my Son by name (for good reasons not trouble).

I explained I was engaging in a time honored tradition of teaching my boy how to drive a stick. After gabbing for 10 minutes about cars, shooting, scouts and tractors he was on his way.

We are lucky for several reasons - demographic and race included. Our experience would have been very different if we didn't fit a certain profile. We talked about that after and agreed we are very fortunate and not ever to forget it.

[Scuba Steve]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

But meanwhile, back in real life, I was driving in a row of traffic. No chance to speed even if I wanted too. And a cop on the side of the road gave me frantic moves to slow down. Duh. I continued in the flow of traffic, we were all a bit under the stated speed limit. And a short while later he was about a meter behind my bumper. Crazy bastard kept this up for 10 minutes before he figured out I wasn't speeding.

I had something similar happen while I was testing the transmission in my wife's car. The speed limit on the road was 40 and I was doing closer to 35, but because I was limiting it to 1st and 2nd engine RPM was a little high. Some old bat who was out walking her dog completely freaked out like I was driving on the Autobahn and a danger to everyone. I'm not sure if she was ever able to realize I wasn't speeding as I passed or not.

[dtw]

I've been doing a ton of catch-up on deferred maintenance on my C4S; a present left for me by the PO. After replacing the brake system flex hoses and bleeding the system, I needed to do a brief test drive. The road where my shop is located is heavily patrolled by both county sheriff's deputies and state highway patrol. Pretty hard to swing a dead cat without hitting one at any given time of day, so we keep our test drives pretty tame.

Anyway, I headed out for a super-brief test drive just as the sun was dropping and got lucky - no patrol cars in sight.

Would have been an interesting conversation if one had popped up...here's the current state of my car...