What NOT to do when pulled over ...

What NOT to do when pulled over ...

circa 1992 ... Mountlake Terrace ... it's late on a weekend night ...

I pull out of the 7-11 and head up 52nd and crest the hill ...

I am not speeding ...

I have not been drinking ....

There are flashing lights behind me ...

I pull over ...

A Terrace cop with a questionable attitude simply tells me that I did not stop when pulling out of the 7-11 (this is something that they call "Failure to come to a complete stop when leaving a private drive onto an arterial" or something) and that I was going to get a ticket for that ...

Please bear in mind that had I not come to a complete stop when leaving that 7-11 the differential on my truck would still be down there and so would I ... the dip when coming out of that lot is severe and there was simply no way I could have blasted out of there ...

I told him so ...

He said he saw me ...

I did not believe him and told him so and that I thought he was just a bored Terrace cop living up to the way everyone feels about Terrace cops ...

He disagreed ...

I got the ticket ... he looked smug as all get out handing it to me ...

There was no real way to fight the ticket without a day off from work and going to court, which likely would have cost me more than the ticket ...

I still think he saw a car blast out of there that was not mine and lost track of vehicles in the dark or simply wanted to spot check a car for drinking or something and when I pointed out his error he got prissy about it and wrote the lamest ticket ever ...

I felt like Jim Carey in Liar Liar when he pointed out that there was nothing he could really do about his treatment other than whine and complain ...

I have not received a ticket since and the couple times I have been pulled over I have been nice, even when the reasoning given was lame ... I guess there is a lesson in here somewhere ...