A ticket? me?

WARNING: THIS IS KIND OF A LONG POST...

I would like to tell a story. Well, a few stories actually.

It's about my many (WAY to many for my own good) experiences with cops and being pulled over.

You see,

I'm a pretty good driver when I want to be.

But there ARE those occasions where tend to I get a little lazy and don't QUITE follow the rules of the road. (Don't talk to MANDY about this though...she would say differently..)

Let me start with experience #1:

It was the year 2006 and a dark saturday night. I was in a very bad mood as I was tired, 17 years old, and it wasn't the best time of the month for me. My mom had asked me to take my little sister and her friend to the store because she was teaching the lesson in young womens the next day and she wanted to get treats.

I was oh so reluctant, but because my mom let me take her car, I agreed.

I drove the 10 minute drive to the Smiths in Herriman and I waited in the car while they ran in. I didn't want to be there and quite frankly I couldn't wait to go to bed. So the second Emilee and her friend got back into the car, I was off for home. As I was driving down the long stretch of road, my eyes focused on the car about 100 yards ahead of me. "I'm going to catch up to that car" I thought and I pressed my foot on the gas just a little harder. With satisfaction I watched as I was approaching the car. The satisfaction quickly turned to horror as I noticed a cop sitting quietly in the field to the right of me,with all of his lights off. I quickly slammed on my breaks in panic. mistake. I hit the breaks wayyy too hard and the tires screeched causing the car to jolt to almost a complete stop.

My heart was racing as I watched the cops headlights flip on. "NO!!" I yelled as my sister and her friend sat in complete silence in the back, their faces filled with complete horror. "PLEASE don't pull me over!" I cried as he pulled onto the road. When I saw the red and blue lights turn on, the panic I was feeling became 100 times stronger. This was the very first time I was being pulled over and I was NOT handling it very well. I began to cry.

I opened the glove box and searched frantically for whatever it was I was supposed to give this cop. When he appeared at the window, flashlight in hand, he began lecturing me. I don't remember what exactly it was that he said because I was in too much of a panic. "I don't know what you need!" I choked out. I showed him paper after paper until FINALLY he was able to show me JUST what my registration and proof of insurance looked like. I placed my license on top of it and gave it to him. "Please don't give me a ticket!" I begged. "I don't have the money. This is my first time getting pulled over and I really am so sorry." I was throwing out all the words I could think of to get out of this ticket.

Just then I noticed that this cop wasn't alone. To the right of me another cop was shining his light in my windows looking at Emilee and her friend and looking through my car. I rolled my eyes in annoyance and then turned to the cop at my window. "I'll be right back." he said in his incredibely annoying 'I'm better than you' voice. (haha you think i'm bitter?)

I put my head on the steering wheel as I tried to relax. My sister and her friend than began to talk..but they weren't using reassuring words at all. they were saying things like "OH MY! there was TWO of them!" and "Wow. how annoying. they were like searching through the car suspiciously like we were hiding something." I tuned out their words as I focused on calming down. I waited impatiently as I stared through my rearview mirror just waiting for his door to open.

Time creeped by.

Finally, I saw the door open and the cop walking towards my car, chest puffed out, and clipboard in hand. "I'm giving you a ticket for 9 over. You were really going 13, but I will only give it to you for 9" he said in his now infuriating voice. I looked at him disguted. that's supposed to be GOOD? I thought. GOOD would be no ticket! I was no longer working on staying calm. He gave me the clipboard while pointing where to sign. I covered my eyes with my hands trying to focus. I tried to put the pen to the paper, but my hand was shaking too hard to write.

After what felt like forever, I finally signed the paper. I shoved the clipboard back in his hands and started shutting the window, while shifting the car into drive. (keep in mind I had NEVER been pulled over before. I didn't know what to do and I just wanted to GO HOME!)

"Hey!" The cop yelled, still trying make his voice sound intimidating. I looked at him in suprise "WHAT!?" I asked, now yelling at him.

"Do you want to go to JAIL!?!?" he threatened. how could he threaten that to me!? In my mind I was doing absoultely nothing wrong! I glared at him. "what are you talking about!?"

"we're not DONE here!" he stated as he ripped the paper. He then went on a huge long lecture again, which I didn't hear because my sister was in the back screaming at the cop. I really wanted her to stop, but i didn't have the energy to stop her. When he finally gave me the paper and got in his car, I drove away. I was so upset I couldn't see straight.

The ticket ended up being around $117.

I wasn't happy.

But, quite frankly, I deserved that ticket.

I was speeding

and slamming on your breaks to the point where you skid across the road?

yeah. don't ever do that!

Experience #2:

As some of you might know, I am a CNA (certified nursing assistant). it was the year 2007 and at the time, I worked at a place called Alta Ridge Alzheimers. I absolutely LOVED my job and worked there with a good friend of mine, Rachel. Again I was 17. Rachel and I were just leaving when we decided that we wanted to watch the movie Anastasia. After talking about it for a few minutes, we decided to go back to my house so we could watch it there.

Rachel and I both drove VW Jetta's at the time and She was following me because she couldn't remember exactly how to get to my house. As we were driving, she pulled up next to me at a stop light and rev'd her engine. I couldn't help it. she was driving the same car! once the light turned green I sped off racing her to the next light. (I won of course :)) what I DIDN'T know, was that a cop had seen me speed off. It was getting dark, so I could only see the outline of cars. After I beat Rachel, she started backing off. For a while I kept losing her and wasn't sure where she went. As I stopped at another stoplight, I noticed a car behind me and it looked like it had the bike holders on the top. where is rachel?? I thought. As I continued driving I spotted her a couple cars behind me, so I began focusing more on the road. As I was coming up on the NEXT light, I realized I had to switch lanes..so I did..but realized as I was doing so that I did not use my blinker!

As I stopped at the light, I glanced back at my rearview mirror again and to my suprise, the car I had seen before was still behind me but the stuff on top of it were not bike holders, they were lights! oh it's a cop! I thought to myself, making a mental note to pay attention to my driving. As the light turned green, I slowly got up to the speed limit. Apparantly this caused the cop to realize that I had noticed him. That's when his lights turned on. Confused and extremely angry that he was pulling me over, I pulled to the side of the road. THIS time, I was not crying, just ready to figure out why I was being pulled over.

When he arrived at my window he asked, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I looked up at him trying to see his face while realizing that I had no idea how long he had been behind me. "Well..." I said "It depends on how long you were behind me.." I smiled innocently and he laughed. good sign I thought to myself. "Well, let's see," he began. oh crap. NOT a good sign. "I caught you speeding 10 over, switching lanes without using your blinker, and your tail light is out" he smiled back..innocently as I tried to work up some great excuse for each accusation.

As I stared out my windsheild I saw Rachel pull over a few feet in front of me. "Okay, that's my friend." I said, pointing at her. "She is following me home so I was trying to make sure she was following me which can explain why I wasn't driving very well.." I looked up trying to see if he was buying my excuse so far. "Also, when I realized I was speeding, I slowed down..I'm sure you noticed. I switched lanes without using my blinker, because I was almost to the light and I would have used it but by the time I remembered to use it, it was too late. Oh and I didn't know my tail light was out..sorry..??" pathetic! I thought. The cop just smiled, asked for my license, registration and proof of insurance and went back to his car.

He came back a few minutes later, still with a smile on his face. "Okay. I'll let you off with the others but I do have to give you a fix it ticket for your light. Don't worry though, just get it fixed and it won't affect your insurance or anything." I was ECSTATIC "thank you thank you thank you!" I exclaimed.

That could have been a VERY bad experience. INSTEAD, both me AND the cop, drove away with a smile on our faces.

Experience #3:

This was Valentines day of '08. Now those of you who have read my adoption story know that later that day I discovered I was pregnant...This day could have just started off SO incredibely bad.

I was living in Ogden at the time, but because Kris broke his foot just the day before, I had to drive down to Riverton to pick him up and then drive back to my apartment to get ready. It was an icy day but we were in a HUGE hurry. We had reservations. So, because I had made some incredibley stupid decisions for the past few weeks, I decided that I would make another stupid decision, which was drive recklessly. We were on the freeway and I was weaving in and out of traffic like a maniac. the roads were ICY and I was going 85 miles an hour. (yeah..I was dumb right??) I had just gotten into a quite empty lane, when I looked in my rearview mirror. After studying the car behind me for a few seconds, I realized that it was an undercover cop. "I think that's a cop" I said to Kris, and right as I said this, his lights turned on. "CRAP!" I said as I began pulling over.

My heart was pounding. "What am I going to do?" I asked him. "I can't pay for this..I don't have any money!" as he approached my window I rolled in down in fear of how he was going to treat me. "In a hurry?" he asked, his face in completel dissatisfaction. "I'm sorry. Yes I am, but that is no excuse." he eyes me with suspision. "Do you have a death wish? because most people that drive the way you were just driving, end up smeared acrossed the highway." He was right and I couldn't argue. "I'm really sorry" I said as I, again, handed him my license, registration, and Proof of Insurance.

Kris and I both sat in silence as I watched him through the rearview mirror. I was SO nervous.

I should probably mention, that this time the car I drove was a red Chevy Cobalt and it had a license plate holder on the back that said "Daddy's Little Princess".

As the cop got out of his car, I realized to my curiosity, that all he was holding was what I had given him. When he arrived at my window, I stared at him with shock filling my eyes as he explained "I was putting your information in my computer when I looked up and saw that your license plate says "Daddy's Little Princess". I have a little girl at home, and frankly I don't want to be the one to have to tell your dad that you're not coming home. So just be careful." and he handed me back my papers. "you're not giving me a ticket?" I asked with complete astonishment. "no." He said "but really. Be careful." I gotta tell you. at that moment, I wanted to get out of the car and just hug the officer. All I could do was thank him a million times and promise that I would be more careful.

I gotta say that I was. I think that after that day I have been a LOT more careful.

yes, I do still drive crazy sometimes..but not like that.

I think that cop left the biggest impression on me and I respected him more because he didn't seem to try to act cocky. He was just being realistic.

So thanks to that cop, the BEGINNING of my day didn't start off horribly, it just ended incredibely bad..

Experience #4:

I was probably about 3 months pregnant at this point. I had just started working at eBay, so I was still in training. We could only have 3 occurances and I was running late (like always, since I spent most of my mornings after I woke up at the toilet..puking! ha I know you wanted to know that..) I had 10 minutes to be at work and clocked in and I just KNEW I was going to be late.

As the light I was waiting at turned green, me and a couple other cars sped up..I was in a hurry and wasn't paying as much attention to my spedometer as I should have been and as I looked over and saw the cop I tried to slow down but it was too late. I was the one in the back, so I was the one that was going to be pulled over.

I don't have much to say about this one except that he clocked me at going 60 in a 40, but only gave me a ticket for going 5 over. I was less upset about this one since I actually DID have a job and it wasn't going to be TOO expensive...plus I could go to traffic school and get it off my insurance :)

Experience 5:

yeah you're probably thinking.."wow..is she ever going to learn?" but I can honestly say that this next one was NOT my fault.

It happened about a month ago. It was the end of April, and I was 'babysitting' my grandparents while my aunt was out of town. My little sister had come to watch me speak at an adoptive parent class earlier that day, so she was still with me when I had decided I was hungry. I told my oma (grandma in dutch) that we were going to go get some food and asked them if they wanted anything. My Oma wanted me to pick up a bag of potatos from wal mart and my Opa wanted fries.

So after my sister and I ate some dinner at the best Pizzeria ever, Firehouse, we set off to pick up the stuff for my grandparents. I dropped Emilee off at walmart while I drove over to wendy's to pick up the fries. As I was pulling back into walmart to pick Emilee up, I saw flashing lights. I looked up to see a cop behind me and of course, pulling me over.

I can honestly tell you that I was completely shocked what did I do wrong?? I thought. I honestly hadn't noticed that I had done anything wrong. As the cop came to my window and asked me if I knew why I pulled him over I said "no, I can honestly tell you that I have NO IDEA why you are pulling me over right now." He asked me to show him proof of insurance. As I frantically searched for it, I failed. The one that I had, had expired a month before. "I'm showing that this car is currently not insured" he said. I was completely confused. So confused that I began to laugh. "No, I can promise you that this car is insured." He didn't even crack a smile. "Our computers are pretty accurate." he said. "So I can't believe you unless you give me proof."

As I was searching through my car, Emilee called me. I picked up my phone, with him sitting there and began laughing hysterically. "I'm just over here on the other side of the parking lot. I'm pulled over!" I was laughing! why was I laughing? This was a serious thing.. I looked up at the cop and he was staring at me, completely annoyed with my behavior. "Let me just call my parents, because I KNOW that I'm insured." I said. "you do what you want, but unless I have a paper proving it, I can't believe you." He snarled as he walked back to his car to 'check again'. I called my mom while he was back there. It was almost midnight at this point so I felt a little guilty for waking them up.

As I told my mom what was going on, she woke my dad up and he immediately got ahold of our insurance agent. As he was on the phone with him, the cop came back and my mom asked to talk to him. He gave me the ticket as I gave him the phone. As he talked to her I started realizing what my mom was doing. She asked why he pulled me over and he explained that he pulled up my license plate "randomly" and found that I wasn't insured. Than she asked if he could do that. After he rudely responded that he could, my mom mentioned that he seemed to be very bored and than told him that my dad had just finised talking to our insurance agent and that we were, indeed, insured.

OF COURSE, he still didn't buy it.

SO, I had to go to court two weeks later with a letter from my agent proving that I was insured. It was a complete pain especially since it was 45 minutes away from my house. I can't say I was happy, but my Insurance Agent made sure it all worked out so that we weren't penalized at all!

So, you may be wondering what has brought this long long LONG post on.

Well,

why don't you thank my sixth and final experience...

It happened last night...

Experience #6

I was driving home from Terri's house with Keara.

As we were driving down the SAME road I was on in Experience #1,

Keara pointed out that there was a cop. I SLOWLY this time, put on my breaks just a little.

(it's an automatic reaction..even if I'm NOT speeding..which I wasn't)

Still, as I drove past, the headlights turned on.

"what the heck?" I said to keara. This cop BETTER not pull me over. For a second there I didn't think they were going to..but sure enough their lights turned on. "Oh no." I thought as the SAME question came into my mind and out my mouth "How am I going to pay for this?" I had all of the papers ready this time (I was used to it now..although I still had to ask Keara if one of the papers were my registration..). As I was waiting for the cop to come to my window, I began to feel really discouraged. is this really happening to me? It's really the last thing I need right now.

As the cop arrived at my window, I realized It was a female. oh great I thought in my head. Althought I had never personally dealt with a female cop, I had heard they were a lot more brutal. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" she asked, in a more polite tone than I expected her to. "No.." I was really worried now and you could hear it in my voice. She smiled and said "did you know that your headlight is out?" the fear and worry I was feeling in both my body and my voice relaxed. "Oh." I was really relieved that was all it was. "oh that's soo good that is all it is." and I smiled to.

She took my information and went back to her car. I was totally planning on receiving a 'fix it' ticket, so when she walked up and told me she was only giving me a warning I, again, almost hugged her. "THANK YOU!" I said.

I will never Judge a cop now on their sex.

I totally assumed she was going to be mean..because that is how I have heard female cops are..but she was SUPER nice.

I guess that's what happens when you assume right??

SO,

let's hope that I don't get pulled over for a LOONG time now.

The End :)