A true cop story

[Hugh R]

When I was 18 in the USMC, I was stationed for a while at Camp Lejeune, N.C.. I got pulled over by the local cops at least once a week in the area, they couldn't believe a kid was driving an Aston Martin around there in 1972. I doubt they had ever seen one before. I NEVER had any drugs in that car, not even a seed, because 1/2 the time they searched it for "cause".

[GH85Carrera]

I ordered my 914 2.0 back in 1974 and got to pick it up in September 1974. About 1975 I was in downtown Sylacauga, Alabama and was headed back to Montgomery. The song Freebird was still new on the radio and I was leaving downtown the song started. As the song tempo speeds up I started going faster. I have always been very thankful the song was just 9 minutes long. I was hauling butt down some rural country roads in the bad old days of 55 MPH speed limit. A the song ended I saw a old country store on the on the right just ahead. I nailed the brakes and pulled in. I went to a vending machine and got a Dr. Pepper. As I was sucking that down I saw flashing light approaching from the road up ahead.

Now imagine this cop pulling up.



I swear Dodge used the cop that walked up to me as the basis for their commercial. His shoes were shined up and he looked just like that commercial. He asked me "Boy have you just been racing down my roads?" and I chugged the rest of that DP and said no sir, I have been right here drinking this Dr. Pepper.

I figure if Freebird was 60 seconds longer I would have passed that cop at a stupid speed and I might now be getting out of jail. He said some citizens had called him on the CB radio about some fool driving fast in a little blue sports car. I promised it was not me and I drove out of his county at 54 MPH.

[LakeCleElum]

High school....I get pulled over every week on my old, loud motorcycles.......If I'm not being an idiot, there are always equipment violations.

So, some of us skip school one day, ride the power lines 20 miles out of town and end up at Tarboo Lake by Quilcene....To get the mud off, I ride down the boat ramp into the lake and hit a drop off. Bike submerged. In December. I'm cold and wet. Have to be to work in a hour....Leave my buddies to ride the county roads back to Port Townsend.

Didn't realize my crankcase is not 1/2 oil and 1/2 water.....I'm doing about 60 and see this Deputy camped on my rear fender lighting me up........B4 I could react, the engine seizes with no warning.......My rear wheel locked up and a Dodge Monaco inches away; almost running me over.....

I make it to the shoulder w/o crashing. Deputy comes up shaking asking what happened: I say, My engine seized, what did you you want. He Sez: I forget, you need a ride to town?

Engine cooled, started and I limped into work at the 76 station still wet and muddy.

[Por_sha911]

Some cool stories but why do I hear in the back of my head "Dear Penthouse, You won't believe what happened to me..."?

[KevinP73]

Not suitable for Penthouse but true none the less.

It was a Saturday October 5, 1983. I was in the market for a street bike and decided to run up to the Sunland/Tujunga area to see what Foothill Suzuki had to offer. I lived in North Hollywood at the time so going up Sunland Blvd thru Shadow Hills was the most direct path. On my way up Sunland Blvd I noticed a couple bike cops sitting in the shade off the other side of the street. Not concerned because I wasn't speeding or in their line of sight I went on to the Suzuki dealer and looked about.

Returning a little while later and remembering where I had seen them I was being sure to stay within the posted limit as I went back downhill on Sunland. I pulled up to the traffic light at La Canada Way in the right hand lane behind a Baja bug and a motorcycle (like a dirt bike) on the left. I couldn't tell who was driving the bug but the bike rider was clearly engaged in conversation with them. Nothing hostile. At the time I kinda had the impression he was trying to entice the bug driver to a race. When the light turned green they both took off.......quickly. Knowing what lay ahead I proceeded casually. Sunland Blvd, if you don't know the road is a series of relatively long straight stretches with a few gentle turns about a mile apart. The turns aren't sharp but acute enough to prevent you from seeing fully around the bend. It's perfect speed trap territory because as soon as you round the bend you're caught. Your looking straight on to the cop who's about to write you a ticket.

As I rounded the first bend in the road just disappearing around the second bend was the bug and the bike with a motorcycle cop in pursuit. They rounded the next bend in the road and were out of my sight. It couldn't have been more than 90 seconds maybe two minutes at the most I rounded the bend I had just watched them disappear around. Broadside in the street was a different VW bug, papers and debris were blowing everywhere, the officers bike had impacted the drivers side of this car as it pulled out of a side street. The officer himself was on the opposite side of the street about ten yards further down directly in front of another car traveling in the opposite direction. A woman had jumped out of the car that had been coming the other direction and the first I became aware of her she was coming around the backside of the VW and making contact with the driver who was visibly shaken and disoriented. I stopped in the middle of the road and ran towards the officer. I immediately felt for a pulse in his neck and there was nothing. I couldn't see any signs that he was breathing so I pulled down on his chin to open his mouth. I knew to check for his tongue and it was right there, but still no breathing and I could see the color draining from his face. I was startled as the woman I had seen moments before by the other car ran into me from the back as she reached over me and took his revolver and grabbed his radio. I had no idea what she was doing but she ran past us, dropped the revolver into her car and then started calling on the radio she had just liberated from the officer. I had no way of knowing at the time but she turned out to be an off duty officer herself. Kind of rare back in 1983.

I turned my attention back to the officer and it struck me that I had no idea what else I could do to help him. I knelt there on the pavement and watched the blood drain from his face. It would take a day to describe how things went after that. Before I knew it I was sitting on the curb explaining myself to more cops than I had ever imagined I'd be surrounded by. It was the first time in my life I had seen another man die, and he was close enough to touch. I don't know what emotion describes a moment like that.

I now live in the Sunland/Tujunga area. I pass this spot every day on my to work and home again. Every day I wonder if there was anything I could have done to save him.

Officer Jack Evans L.A.P.D. traffic EOW October 5, 1983.
May he rest in Peace

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by legion

After 8 months, the city finally produces the intersection video of the accident: It shows his car entering the intersection on a green light, goes black for 45 seconds, and then shows the cars at their final resting spots.

Makes me think of Aryton Senna.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

When I was 18 in the USMC, I was stationed for a while at Camp Lejeune, N.C.. I got pulled over by the local cops at least once a week in the area, they couldn't believe a kid was driving an Aston Martin around there in 1972. I doubt they had ever seen one before. I NEVER had any drugs in that car, not even a seed, because 1/2 the time they searched it for "cause".

How an 18 year old kid drives an Aston Martin is a better story. Can you share that with us?

I got popped in 73 on I75 south of Toledo when I was 16 because I looked young. State Patrol called my Mom collect to see if all was ok. Always bothered me as I felt my Mom's first mental image was I was wrapped around some light pole, dead.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by legion

Me: "No, but I'm sure it was entirely too fast."

This is so the right answer.

I got popped by flashing my 911 headlights at the car in front of me in the passing lane with the unmarked Tennessee State Patrol car right there in the pedestrian lane as we were passing him. It was like a Chevy Cobalt.

I literally told him I was "being an *******" post pull over. Edit - a hole

They like humility. Warning only.

Last pull over, ten plus years - knock wood.

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by KevinP73

Officer Jack Evans L.A.P.D. traffic EOW October 5, 1983.
May he rest in Peace

Very sad story Kevin - Sorry you had to witness that. Hope they rounded up the 2 guys racing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Los_Angeles_Police_Department_officers_kil led_in_the_line_of_duty

[aap1966]

Originally Posted by KevinP73

.......... Every day I wonder if there was anything I could have done to save him.

Almost certainly not.

I'm not saying that to make you feel better, I'm saying that because it's a fact based on 23 years experience in general, cardiothoracic and cardiac ICUs.

[Don Ro]

Great stories...thanks gents.
.
One of mine...
.
A couple of decades ago, I was self-employed and always in a hurry in traffic..."Get out of my way, my ch!t is more important than yours."
Had many tickets...got a letter from the DMV..."Next ticket we'll revoke your license." Had to go to a traffic course entitled, "Attitude".
I surmised that the course after that might be shock therapy.

An example of my arrogance at the time: I'm sitting in the traffic course, looking around at the boobs in there, mocking them to myself.
And then I realize, "Don, you're in here with them."
I was embarrassed to be there and swore to myself that I would clean up my record...and I did...took a few years.
OK..clean record now.
.
Well, got another ticket and decided to do the routine traffic school. On my way to that school I made a slow rolling right at a red light.
Pulled over. I was pissed at myself.
As the LEO came back to my window with the ticket, I slammed my fist on the steering wheel...he asked, "What's the problem?"
I said, "I'm so pissed at myself. It took me years to clean up my record. Do you know where I'm headed"
He said, "Where."
"I'm headed to traffic school and I am so pissed at myself."
.
I waited the required amount of time for the courtesy notice to arrive in the mail. Nothing. I called the Clerk's office and they said, "No trace of a ticket for you."
My moto riding buddy at the time was a Superior Court Judge...I called him to ask if I ought to contact the LEO and thank him.
He said, "No! No! No! He knows that he did you a favor. Leave it alone."
.
I've had only one ticket since then. 'Been a good boy.

[Don Ro]

I guess I'm in the confession mood...here's another...rather long:
.
Years ago on a weekday at ~1:00 p.m., I was out on my Duc. 996S on a long 50 mph sweeper on the coast side of the Santa Cruz mountains at roughly 140 mph. As I passed the only vehicle on the road (white Jeep XJ), I gave a slight wave to acknowledge the occupants (a habit - sort of a "I'm sorry for being an ass").
Looked in the mirror to see red lights blinking behind the grille of the Jeep.

Pulled over with a load of heart pounding self-condemnation, regret, and high anxiety.
Out strolls an older man wearing a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, cowboy shirt, levis, and a .45 auto belted around his pudgy gut. With hands shaking, handing him my papers and license. I nervously said that it was indeed me in the photo and that I presently needed a haircut.
In a southern draw, he said, "That's OK, I need one too."
.
"Tell me, what the hell were you thinking going that fast and why did you wave at us?", he asked.
I said, "The road was empty, I was caught up in the moment, plumb eatin' up with the dumb ass, so I waved as an apology."
.
He went back to the Jeep and stood there on his cell phone for an agonizing 15 minutes or so. Thoughts of being hauled off to jail rushed through my brain.
A younger fellow in a suit and a scowl on his face, stood outside the passenger side staring at me.
The lawman came back to me, handed back my papers, saying, "You could be in big trouble for what you did here today, son. That fellow back there is an FBI agent and he wants to see you in jail. We don't have time to wait for a deputy to show up. I'm going to let you go with my advice that you slow down and enjoy life. "
I about crapped out!!! Almost collapsed from relief.
.
I called a riding buddy (the Superior Court judge) that night. He checked into the episode and reported back that the cowboy was a U.S. Marshall and the younger fellow was indeed an FBI agent. His opinion was that the Marshall decided to let me off because no deputy was in the area and my papers were in order.
"Being "clean cut", zero driving infractions, and being straight with him didn't hurt either.
You got away with a big one...unheard of for that level of infraction."
.

[1990C4S]

I was driving my 911 last summer. Warm summer evening, top down. I'm on a four lane city street with a speed limit of 40 mph. The guy in front of me is doing about 35 in the right lane, I pull around him and accelerate hard.

I'm going at least 50 mph now, the traffic light ahead changes to yellow, so obviously I'm in it now, so I accelerate to 60 and run the light.

I get through the light, and slow down, but it's too late. My rear view mirror had fallen off a few weeks before, so I couldn't see the cop right behind me....

He pulls me over, and walks up to my car. I say 'What did I do?', then I rethink things and say 'How much did you see?'. He laughs and says 'All of it'.

I ended up with a ticket for 'Failure to surrender drivers license'. First time I ever thanked a cop for a ticket.

[Otter74]

Thanks for sharing that story. I showed it to a friend of mine who was an LAPD motorcycle patrol officer at that time and he remembered that death.

Originally Posted by KevinP73

Not suitable for Penthouse but true none the less.

It was a Saturday October 5, 1983. I was in the market for a street bike and decided to run up to the Sunland/Tujunga area to see what Foothill Suzuki had to offer. I lived in North Hollywood at the time so going up Sunland Blvd thru Shadow Hills was the most direct path. On my way up Sunland Blvd I noticed a couple bike cops sitting in the shade off the other side of the street. Not concerned because I wasn't speeding or in their line of sight I went on to the Suzuki dealer and looked about.

Returning a little while later and remembering where I had seen them I was being sure to stay within the posted limit as I went back downhill on Sunland. I pulled up to the traffic light at La Canada Way in the right hand lane behind a Baja bug and a motorcycle (like a dirt bike) on the left. I couldn't tell who was driving the bug but the bike rider was clearly engaged in conversation with them. Nothing hostile. At the time I kinda had the impression he was trying to entice the bug driver to a race. When the light turned green they both took off.......quickly. Knowing what lay ahead I proceeded casually. Sunland Blvd, if you don't know the road is a series of relatively long straight stretches with a few gentle turns about a mile apart. The turns aren't sharp but acute enough to prevent you from seeing fully around the bend. It's perfect speed trap territory because as soon as you round the bend you're caught. Your looking straight on to the cop who's about to write you a ticket.

As I rounded the first bend in the road just disappearing around the second bend was the bug and the bike with a motorcycle cop in pursuit. They rounded the next bend in the road and were out of my sight. It couldn't have been more than 90 seconds maybe two minutes at the most I rounded the bend I had just watched them disappear around. Broadside in the street was a different VW bug, papers and debris were blowing everywhere, the officers bike had impacted the drivers side of this car as it pulled out of a side street. The officer himself was on the opposite side of the street about ten yards further down directly in front of another car traveling in the opposite direction. A woman had jumped out of the car that had been coming the other direction and the first I became aware of her she was coming around the backside of the VW and making contact with the driver who was visibly shaken and disoriented. I stopped in the middle of the road and ran towards the officer. I immediately felt for a pulse in his neck and there was nothing. I couldn't see any signs that he was breathing so I pulled down on his chin to open his mouth. I knew to check for his tongue and it was right there, but still no breathing and I could see the color draining from his face. I was startled as the woman I had seen moments before by the other car ran into me from the back as she reached over me and took his revolver and grabbed his radio. I had no idea what she was doing but she ran past us, dropped the revolver into her car and then started calling on the radio she had just liberated from the officer. I had no way of knowing at the time but she turned out to be an off duty officer herself. Kind of rare back in 1983.

I turned my attention back to the officer and it struck me that I had no idea what else I could do to help him. I knelt there on the pavement and watched the blood drain from his face. It would take a day to describe how things went after that. Before I knew it I was sitting on the curb explaining myself to more cops than I had ever imagined I'd be surrounded by. It was the first time in my life I had seen another man die, and he was close enough to touch. I don't know what emotion describes a moment like that.

I now live in the Sunland/Tujunga area. I pass this spot every day on my to work and home again. Every day I wonder if there was anything I could have done to save him.

Officer Jack Evans L.A.P.D. traffic EOW October 5, 1983.
May he rest in Peace

[ForBell]

Don,
140 in a 50 on a motorcycle? a us marshall and an fbi agent? yeah, i'd say that "You got away with a big one."

[djmcmath]

Originally Posted by matthewb0051

He tells me to pop the trunk on my 911, pointing to the rear of the car. I do and he was very surprised to find an engine. After a chuckle, he then asked to look in the front trunk.

There's an apocryphal tale of a guy driving a VW Beetle across the border from Canada to the US. The border agent stopped him for a routine search, and, not realizing the trunk was in the front, asked the driver to open the trunk, while standing at the back of the car.

The driver pointed out that the trunk was at the front, and happily opened the trunk. The border agent, not wanting to look dumb, insisted that the driver then open the "trunk," while still standing at the back of the car. The driver refused, insisting that the trunk was already open, and please inspect at your leisure.

They went back and forth for a few rounds before the driver finally opened the engine bay to reveal several bottles of untaxed liquor nestled on either side of the engine.

[sammyg2]

The most trouble I have ever gotten into in my life (knock on wood) was for going 65 in a 55 nso no good personal cop stories.

But about 6 or 7 years ago my wife bought a used nissan sentra fro my daughter from a dealer.

The tags on the plate were out of date but the registration was paid, all the paperwork was legal, all fees paid, the temp registration sticker in the widow, all the right stuff was in order.

My daughter had just got her licence and was driving her new (used) car.
She got pulled over by city of orange police officer barney fife who was evidently half-way through his first month on the job.

He wrote her up for not having current registration. Which BTW is no longer just a fix-it ticket, it comes with court fees.
She showed him all the paperwork from the dealer showing that all DMV fees were paid and the temporary registration in the window, barney was having none of it.

She got home and showed me the ticket, and like a cool-headed father i went looking for barney.
Luckily he was still parked in the same parking lot he was sitting in when my daughter drove by earlier.
Long story longer, I tried to 'splain to this idiot his errors, he threatened to arrest me.

So I went home and the next morning I called the city of Orange mayor.
She and I had worked together on a charity project years ago and she still remembered me.
Her name is Teresa but she goes by Tita.

Good ole barney got beotch slapped by the mayor (figuratively) and I did not have to pay the court fees.

[arerrac]

2 stories

10+ years ago returning from a friends house in San Jose via HWY 280, north bound. Weekend day so there was zero to light traffic.

It's around 3 pm or so and I'm hauling a$$. Triple digits for minuets on end. Totally concentrating on my driving and at one point I look in the rear view mirror. See the flashing blue and red of a CHP on a bike. I begin to slow as he comes right up to my bumper. He is pissed! Have all my paperwork in order.

He said that he radioed ahead because he thought he wouldn't catch me. He clocked me on radar at 112 mph. He said that he thought he was busting some kid in his dad's Porsche. But that it was mine, my record was clear and he couldn't justify impounding it for reckless driving. So he gave me a ticket. mandatory court appearance.

So I show up to court. Dressed to the nines since I know what's expected. Right out the gate the Judge states that any fine will be halved, that if you need an interpreter, to speak up NOW and that he wants to move things smoothly. First case called is a gang banger dresses as such. Judge tells him to come back when he's properly dressed for court. Second case need and interpreter but didn't ask for one. Judge admonishes the attorney and goes onto the next one. Mine. He reads off the offence, I agree and the fine of $200 is given. I had paid $100 prior so I only owed $100 that I paid then and there. I then asked if I could attend traffic school. The judge lowered his glasses to his nose, looked over them at me and said firmly, NO!!! I said thank you and was out of there. So I was in for a point on my record. Well being in the insurance industry, I can check my DMV record. The point never hit. Don't know what happened, but I always told myself that after the first two yahoos in front of me, I looked really good as I was dressed for court, had all my ducks in a row and helped the judge move thing on.

5 years ago on the way to Lake Berryessa my buddy and I are tearing up the road (HWY 121) as its a drivers road favored by motorcycles. Needless to say, we were moving. Passed a bike cop and didn't even see him. So we get pulled over. Back seat is full of beer and liquor for the weekend party. We are stone cold sober! Again, clean record, all paperwork in order and I admitted that I was really moving. He says that a speeding ticked in Napa is a court appearance and would be a real pain for me living in San Carlos (hour 1/2 away). So we are cool and he's cool. He said he radioed in a stop, so he just cant let me go. So he says he's going to write me up for no proof of insurance which is a fix it ticket that can be handled by fax. I'm stoked. He then says that there are more of him on the road and to keep it slow all the way to our house. We are off. About 10 minuets later I round a blind bend and there is a cruiser and two cycle cops all with their radar pointed up the road at me. Speed limit in that area was 55 and I was at like 43. They all looked down at their guns then back up at me and laughed as we went by. We assumed that the cop that let us off for speeding radioed ahead alerting the other officers that we were headed their way and that if we one tick over the speed limit to throw the book at us.

[stomachmonkey]

Was heading our ski house in VT in my RX7, don't know what possessed me to take the Mazda that particular weekend because it was supposed to dump but I was young and not all that bright.

So we are hauling ass through lower VT, doing a steady 100. Wide open road, no on on it, dry, 100% visibility.

Come up on and blow by some 4 door sedan.

Few minutes later I look in the rear view and there the guy is with flashing blue lights behind the grill so I'm like, hmm, volunteer fireman, he coulda just passed me on the right but whatever and I yield the lane and back off to give him a safe pass.

He pulls past us real slowly and glares.

Real Grizzly Adams looking dude.

He gets in front of us and slows down even though we are still cruising along around 80.

My buddy says WTH is this? Dudes just a fireman with an attitude.

Screw him, get around him and let's keep going.

So I drop a gear, blow past him and we are merrily on our way.

Look in the rearview and sonofa***** there he is again with his stupid volunteer fireman lights going so now I'm pissed and we pull over, he stays behind us so we pull onto the shoulder.

My buddy and I both get out and so does fireman who meets me half way between our cars.

Just as I'm about to mouth off he pulls out his badge, local Sheriff.

****

"They have speed limits in NY?"

Uhm, yes sir.

"What is it?"

55 sir.

"What do you think it is here?"

55 sir.

Keep it under 80, make sure you spend the ticket money in town, have a nice day.

[stuartj]

Legend has it...

One Friday evening there was a highway patrol officer hidden by a freeway, who clocked a Guards 911 proceeding a little too briskly. He turned on all his candy and gunned his big v8 to pursue. Whereupon the Porsche dropped the hammer and disappeared, last seen exiting into a small regional town.

The town is home to a race track and the Porsche club was in for the weekend. There was at least 60 red 911s in town that night. The policeman, by all accounts quite irate, spent hours knocking on motel doors, but strangely, no culprit was found.