Sometimes you win

[Chrisj CMA]

Today on the way home......bike was just running so good.....Im on a road that is 45mph but soooooo easy to do 55 or better.......Not sure how much over I was, probably 55.  Anyway a copper goes by the other way and I see his brakes come on.....not his lights (so far anyway) so I make a quick decision.  Turn and take a slow tour of a few connected housing areas and get home the extreme back way.  Possibly it was for nothing, he may have been speeding too and just decided to slow down when he saw the speed limit sign or he was turning around and would have ruined my day if he could find me.  I suppose Ill never know which it was, but hey, all I know is I didnt see him again and he never saw me again........I like it that way   

[Fritz The Cat]

Ha Ha, happened to me once. Had one make a u turn on 516 to come after me. I got off at the I 6 exit. The exit ramp divides, one goes east and one goes west. No way he could have seen which way I went. I went east (my intended direction) and apparently he went west. I never saw him again. 

[Chrisj CMA]

Ha Ha, happened to me once. Had one make a u turn on 516 to come after me. I got off at the I 6 exit. The exit ramp divides, one goes east and one goes west. No way he could have seen which way I went. I went east (my intended direction) and apparently he went west. I never saw him again. 

LOL Fritz...must be something about the red and whites eh?

[John Schmidt]

About 20 yrs. ago when I was dating my present wife, I left her place around midnight and headed for home(an old-fashion concept, we didn't live together while dating for over 4 yrs.). At the time, I had an old Honda 750 that came with a switch control for the lights. I passed a grade school and caught a slight reflection off something shiney in the shadows of the buildings but didn't react at that moment. As I continued down the street, in the rear view mirror I saw a squad car pull out and follow me with the lights off....was able to spot him as he passed under a street light and I was a good two blocks ahead of him. I turned one corner, he followed. As I turned another as soon as I was out of sight I nailed it and killed the lights. I turned down a deadend with a big delivery truck parked there, whipped in behind it and laid the bike down behind the rear wheels. Suddenly they went screaming past, this time with lights on, and for the next few minutes heard them running up and down nearby streets, apparently searching for me. They finally quit and I saw them pass the street one more time, each time they shined their spots down there but didn't see anything. I waited a bit longer then left for home via another route.

About three days later while on an assignment out near Disney, I used one of the last public phones in existence and called the Winter Park police dept. and asked to speak to the charge officer. I then related what happened which caused him to bust out laughing, then got real serious and told me there were two in that squad and he planned to have a chat with them. Have no idea what came of it, just know I wasn't the "goat of the night" for these two.

[Jess from VA]

My first car was an old Karmen Ghia VW, and the running tail lights became permanently intermittent (brake lights always worked).  OK in the day, but I'd get pulled over at night (on my small island home with 10 cops).  He'd point to the blank taillights, and I'd kick the tail end of the car and they'd come back on.  They'd say 'that don't cut it mister, you need to get them fixed,' and I'd say 'I've tried and tried, and can't figure out what's wrong,' which was true, with my 16 years of experience.  

After a couple months, I figured I'd been pulled over once each by all ten cops, and my luck was running out.  I lived on the South end and my girlfriend lived on the North end, and biology can't be denied, so as I rolled up the East (Detroit) River Rd at night, I passed a cop.  I wondered if my taillight were working (they always were when I left), and 300 feet later I see his brake lights go on and him begin a Uy, so without speeding up I pulled into a huge subdivision, made five quick turns and hid in a wooded driveway (for probably an hour).  Saw the girlfriend later and made it home OK.  Only one cop on duty each night made that a pretty good bet.

Few days later in daylight I get pulled over for no apparent reason, and the cops says "Jess, you ran from me the other night."  Gulp, shake, kick dirt, 'Ahh, no sir, I just went to my girlfriend's house.'  'Well, I was talking with the guys at the station, and it seems they've all pulled you over for those lights in the last few months.'  'Yes, that's probably true sir.'  'Well, get that thing home and get it fixed.... you aren't getting any more breaks.'  'Yessir, thank you sir.'  

And I did.  Gave up on the old 6-volt wiring and sockets and bought external studded lights, drilled holes in back and mounted them over the fenders.  Looked like crap, but worked.  

Thus began my lifelong failure with all things involving auto electric......... I can let the smoke out of the wires with no effort whatsoever (or with great effort, it doesn't matter).

[csj]

I had decided this summer to go to my favourite british style pub
for a tall one, was most of the way there on the valkyrie, was
presented with a yellow light at an intersection, ran through it,
then noticed on the opposite side of the intersection there was a
Big 'Ol provincial cop (opp). We made eye contact, I knew there
was a good sized ticket taking shape, so I twisted the wrist, found out
just how hard a valkyrie can accelerate, and how far it can lean
in a turn. I was able to still see him before my first hard turn,
He never got turned to come after me.

Don't be needin any tickets.

[John Schmidt]

About 20 yrs. ago, my youngest daughter was on her way back to Fla. from Wisconsin and as usual was flying low down I-75. Somewhere near Gainesville, FL she saw a trooper in the northbound lane and soon as he saw her turned on his lights and hit the gas. She knew he had at least another mile or more before finding a crossover so she also hit the gas and took the first turnoff. Whipped into a gas station with a car wash, pulled into the car wash and told the kid running it she needed to hide for a few minutes. She gave him $10 and sat in her car through at least five washes, at which time the kid told her the trooper finally quit looking and headed north. She pulled out and made it the rest of the way to Orlando, I'm assuming at a much reduced speed.

[Chrisj CMA]

About 20 yrs. ago, my youngest daughter was on her way back to Fla. from Wisconsin and as usual was flying low down I-75. Somewhere near Gainesville, FL she saw a trooper in the northbound lane and soon as he saw her turned on his lights and hit the gas. She knew he had at least another mile or more before finding a crossover so she also hit the gas and took the first turnoff. Whipped into a gas station with a car wash, pulled into the car wash and told the kid running it she needed to hide for a few minutes. She gave him $10 and sat in her car through at least five washes, at which time the kid told her the trooper finally quit looking and headed north. She pulled out and made it the rest of the way to Orlando, I'm assuming at a much reduced speed.

$10 well spent 

[Fudd]

Run Forest, Run!!

[art]

The only time I ran from a cop I was riding a new 1966 norton atlas.I was returning from where my wife worked an was only going about 45 or 10 over.A CHP was coming out of a donut shop[it figures] an he ran to his harley Ha Ha .I took off as fast as that snorton norton would go .After a few rights an lefts got off the bike an took a walk.I guess old fatso on the hog gave up.Couldn't catch a snorton norton.Ha Ha

[JimC]

When I was just a little kid about 10-12 years old, we were heading home to Chicago coming from Indy with my dad driving. He was flying down the road in our 57 Olds wagon. All of a sudden he spots a squad car hiding behind the proverbial highway sign. My dad sped up and about a half mile up the road he pulled off into a gas station.

Before stopping he told my mom to grab my little brother who was about 4 years old at the time and run him into the bathroom. Sure enough as soon as he stopped, she jumped out with my little brother and at the same time the squad pulls in behind us. The cop saw them running toward the rest room and he turned around and left never saying a word.  

Jim

[Black Dog]

While dating my ex (1978), she was going to school at UW Lacrosse, a 200 + mile ride from my place in Milwaukee.  I thought nothing of swinging a leg over my '77 GL1000, and visiting for the evening, many times having to be back to work by 9:00am...

One night, between Sparta and Lacrosse (a long lonely road with nothing but trees) I wanted to make some time.  I twisted the wick, put my chest on the tank, and hunkered down behind the Vetter...  90 +  ...  Way back...  Way, way back, I caught sight of red lights, closing pretty fast.  As luck would have it, there was an exit for Bangor/Coon Valley (up north WI, lotsa names like that).  Took the exit, and shut down under the freeway.  Heard the squad go roaring by, saw the red lights reflecting off the trees...  Decided to find a place to grap a cup of coffee, and let him find something else to do...  I was about 30 minutes from her place, and did that trip many, many more times without incident 

Black Dog

[Hoovey]

Back in the late 80's  I was on other side of a "Sometimes you win" story. Late one evening I was on patrol on a rural two lane when I met an older midsize Honda or Yamaha running with out a tail light . So I turned around and start running him down and as I'm catching up to him and hit the lights, I could see he also didn't have a plate on the bike either. Well he decides to take off so the chase was on. This was a curvey,hilly two lane and he wasn't the best rider so I had no problem keeping him in sight. As we were approaching a hill crest he overtakes a car. When the driver of the  car saw my lights he slowed down but I was unable to get around him safely until he finally got out of my way over the hill crest. By this time the young man on the bike had put some distance on me. I lost sight of him as he entered a sharp curve with a county road intersecting the highway forming a Y intersection. When I rounded the curve it was like he had just vanished. I searched both roads and drove the area for over a hour and never did find him.
About a month later I found out who the driver was and what happend was when he got to the Y in the road he could'nt decide which way to go so he shot out into a hay field and laid the bike down pretty hard. He apparently laid there a couple hours then got up and took his battered body and bike home.

[pitbull]

A couple of years ago I was riding along a 2 lane road not far from my house.In the UK the speed limit for this type of road is usually 70mph.
The traffic was fairly busy but the outside lane was clear so there I am,feet on highway pegs,the wife on the back and I'm cruising at 85mph.I have a glance in my mirror and see a sportsbike headlight coming from behind and he's going much quicker than me.I couldn't pull in to the inside lane because of the traffic(didn't want to slow down) so I moved close to the lane divider to let the sportsbike past.He came up along side and it was a fully marked police bike.
He matched my speed (85mph),looked over at me and then tapped his speedo several times and wagged his finger at me like I was a naughty 4 year old,he then tapped his mirror and pointed to his eyes.By this time I had slowed to 70mph,put my hand up as an apology and with a flick of his wrist he was gone. Sometimes our cops are pretty good like that 
A couple of miles down the road he had stopped a car and was giving a ticket.When we stopped to pick up a few groceries,I got my ear bent from the missus for getting a telling off by the cop.

85mph on the Valk,for me,is the sweet spot.I still travel at that speed on the big roads,but now always slow when I have something approach from the rear.

[Chrisj CMA]

See, its them red and whites.....Il tellin ya.... 

[hubcapsc]

I was trying to catch back up to Henry on 215, when...



... I could see that he pulled over, but he didn't come to get us... 

-Mike

[solo1]

Interesting stories, all.

Thinking back a few years, I remember when I was pulled over three times in one week.  I did a Murphy's stop at a stop sign in full view of a cop car.  I ran a stale yellow at an intersection, got pulled over, and I was stopped by a Park police for parking in the grass.  All this I managed to do on a Whizzer motorbike.  All of them let me off but I was disappointed because my goal was to get a speeding ticket.

Since then, I've gotten stopped for cutting corners at an 'unsafe 'speed in my Beetle back in the '60s, and just this year I was warned by means of the PA on a patrol car to 'slow it down' in the sharp curve on Jefferson St in Ft. Wayne (I was in my Mazda Three).

Good planning and a bit of luck was with me when I was coming back from a Michigan VRCC event two years ago in the Miata.  I tried for top speed on I27 north of Houghton Lake.  I had slowed down by the time I passed the next crossover (with an LEO in it) on Sunday morning early.  BTW, the top speed was 122 mph indicated.

My present Vstrom 1000 would probably do better than the Miata but it's considered unstable at somewhat over the ton so I'm not going to try it.

Neither will i mention how many moving violations tickets I've had since 1947.

[Jess Tolbirt]

many years ago i bought a Lincoln Mark IV,, the next day i was driving to work from freeport Tx to Victoria, about what 80 miles or so? maybe more,,anyway,, i was on a long straight stretch of a hwy that had nothing for miles so i let her breath a little,, i passed a hwy patrol sitting on the side of the road and thought o crap. i looked in my mirror and saw 2 red lights  way back there and i let er rip,, i made a few turns in the next town and every time i looked in the mirror those 2 red lights were there, he wasn't gaining on me but i wasn't losing him either,, after a few minutes i decided if he caught me it was meant to be so i hit the hwy  and headed for work.. each time i looked in the mirror that dam cop was there.. well i pulled into the parking lot at DuPont and when i stopped getting ready to turn the key of i looked up and there was those 2 red lights again,,,when i turned off the lights the 2 red lights went out,,,, those dam lights were indicator lights mounted above the rear window so you would know if your tail lights were working...i felt lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut...

[0leman]

While I was going to College back in the 60', I had 65 ford custom, small V-8.  Not a fast car, but would go over the 50 MPH night time speed limit.
I had gone home on a Wednesday to take care of critters for my folks while they were gone.  Home was about 70 miles away on two lane roads.  It was after dark by the time I headed back. I was cruising around 70 with two other cars, when we topped a hill with a Hwy Patrol facing the other way.  He hit the lights and started after us.  When we went over another hill, one of the other cars and myself slowed and took a gravel "section line" road.  Cut our lights and slowed down so as not to cause a cloud of dust.  The third car got caught.  Only took 20 more minutes than normal to get back to school.
The Hwy Patroa got me a couple weeks later, but that's another story.

[Titan]

I managed to escape getting a ticket once by pure trickery. In the early '80s I had gotten out of law enforcement and went into my own burglar alarm business. I was headed to my office early one morning driving a blue 280Z on the interstate. In a hurry, I was zipping along at about 75 and saw a trooper come down a ramp on the other side of the interstate and heading in the opposite direction. I knew he tagged me and saw him head for the median to come after me. There was a right hand bend in the road and I was going under the overpass that he had just come down from on the other side. As I went around that curve there was a pretty long entrance ramp running along my right side. My first thought was to go ahead and pull off the road and wait for him. And all of a sudden the thought hit me... I jumped over into that entrance lane, slowed down, and turned on my left turn signal as if I'm just entering the interstate. It worked! He went flying right on past me with the blues on! I made my entrance and proceeded on. I could see him up ahead and wondered how long it would be before he gave up. But then... he pulled over a small blue car! Oh no! Some poor guy who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time was getting pulled in my place. Now I hated that! But, what was I gonna do? Stop and confess? Hmmmmm. Being the conscientious one that I am, I actually took the next ramp, circled back around to where I could see the traffic stop, and they were both pulling away. They were not there long enough for a ticket to have been written. Whew! That guy completely lucked out. I figured the trooper knew it wasn't the right car after he got him stopped. I slept better.

[Farther]

I was 17 years old and just finished polishing off a case of Grain Belt with my buddies when on my way home there appeared the light of a South Dakota State Trooper by the name of Tim Printof in my rear view mirror.  In my enlightend state I was sure that I could outrun him and did.  The next day he just showed up at my parents house and gave me a ticket.  I ended up spending two days in jail on that one.

Coon Valley (up north WI, lotsa names like that).

My mother was born on a farm near Coon Valley, WI in 1923 (RIP).

[Chrisj CMA]

I managed to escape getting a ticket once by pure trickery. In the early '80s I had gotten out of law enforcement and went into my own burglar alarm business. I was headed to my office early one morning driving a blue 280Z on the interstate. In a hurry, I was zipping along at about 75 and saw a trooper come down a ramp on the other side of the interstate and heading in the opposite direction. I knew he tagged me and saw him head for the median to come after me. There was a right hand bend in the road and I was going under the overpass that he had just come down from on the other side. As I went around that curve there was a pretty long entrance ramp running along my right side. My first thought was to go ahead and pull off the road and wait for him. And all of a sudden the thought hit me... I jumped over into that entrance lane, slowed down, and turned on my left turn signal as if I'm just entering the interstate. It worked! He went flying right on past me with the blues on! I made my entrance and proceeded on. I could see him up ahead and wondered how long it would be before he gave up. But then... he pulled over a small blue car! Oh no! Some poor guy who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time was getting pulled in my place. Now I hated that! But, what was I gonna do? Stop and confess? Hmmmmm. Being the conscientious one that I am, I actually took the next ramp, circled back around to where I could see the traffic stop, and they were both pulling away. They were not there long enough for a ticket to have been written. Whew! That guy completely lucked out. I figured the trooper knew it wasn't the right car after he got him stopped. I slept better.

something similar happened to me where I got out of it and the othe rguy got nabbed.......rest assured you deserved the ticket, BUT so did the other guy if he got one

[Jess from VA]

In 1969, my girlfriend took me to the Sadie Hawkins dance in HS (in MI).  She was a senior and I was a junior.  Her dad was a Ford MO CO exec, and had a brand new Lincoln MkIII, bright red, white leather interior and vinyl top with the spare tire cover on the trunk (a coupe).... it might have been broken in, it was that new.  He let her take the car to take me out, but I was under no circumstances to be allowed to drive the car (I had no rep for speeding or anything like that (yet), but it was his car and his rule).

I drive over to her house, she gives me the vegetable boutineer (men's corsage, which was the tradition in those days), she drives the Lincoln to the school dance, then out to a pizza joint and she buys me dinner.  On the way home, she says she is tired and knows I'm a better driver than her, and asks me to drive the car back to her house.  I wanted no trouble from her dad, but said OK... it was only 35MPH all the way home anyway.  

Two lane road, guy ahead of me stops with signal for a left, and BAM I get rear ended while I am stopped in the road.  Plenty of street lights in a small town.  Woman in a beater 500 Galaxy is shitfaced drunk, stinking of whiskey.  The back of the Lincoln is really trashed, and there's a hole in the trunk lid.  All three of us get tn the back of the cop car.  I make the report, and the drunk woman cannot stop crying.  It smells like a booze factory in the cop car, but he does not want to arrest her for DUI.  I want her busted to help with what will happen when we get back to my girlfriend's house and show her dad his car, but he tells me to shut up.  She gets a complete walk, don't think she even got a ticket for the accident.

Needless to say her dad was royally pissed about his car, and at her for letting me drive (no sense lying about it, he'll see the accident report), and at me for driving.  I very politely explain that we got rear ended by a drunk, and it made no difference who was driving.... and he threw me out of the house.  Couldn't go back for three weeks.    

We got even with him, in a way, but could never tell him how we did it, repeatedly.  

[Michael K (Az.)]

I was trying to catch back up to Henry on 215, when...



... I could see that he pulled over, but he didn't come to get us... 

-Mike

Yep no doubt about it! It's the Red & Whites!!

[Stanley Steamer]

Honesty is the best policy.........

When I was 18 and had my Dodge Dart Swinger with the 318 V8, I dropped my best friend off at his car in the Winn Dixie parking lot about midnight one night.......the streets were wet and I couldn't resist punching the gas pedal to the floor and spinning my tires through half the parking lot......problem was, there was a policeman sitting across the creek with his headlights off....tucked in beside one of the stores....

I saw him hit his blue lights and take off towards me.....I had just turned out into Hwy 441, the main drag, and I pulled over on the side of the road and waited on him to pull up behind me......he asked for all the usual paperwork and ran my plates.....I told him I was just being stupid for doing a burnout in the parking lot and to go ahead and give me a ticket.....he thanked me for being honest and told me NOT to do it again and let me go........

[Titan]

Honesty is the best policy.........

When I was 18 and had my Dodge Dart Swinger with the 318 V8, I dropped my best friend off at his car in the Winn Dixie parking lot about midnight one night.......the streets were wet and I couldn't resist punching the gas pedal to the floor and spinning my tires through half the parking lot......problem was, there was a policeman sitting across the creek with his headlights off....tucked in beside one of the stores....

I saw him hit his blue lights and take off towards me.....I had just turned out into Hwy 441, the main drag, and I pulled over on the side of the road and waited on him to pull up behind me......he asked for all the usual paperwork and ran my plates.....I told him I was just being stupid for doing a burnout in the parking lot and to go ahead and give me a ticket.....he thanked me for being honest and told me NOT to do it again and let me go........

I couldn't begin to know how many tickets I DIDN'T write during my career when drivers were honest with me. 

[YoungPUP]

WAs 13 and riding my Honda 3-wheelre around in the wooded areas around my parents house. While flying down a stretch of road between the woods, i passed a Conservation officer. Watched her turn around in her Crown Vic, and figured that it was no match offroad for an atv. Lost her, and went home and QUICKLY put up the atv. 2 hours later here she comes walking out of the woods behind the house. Had a hell of a time explaining that one to the parents....

[RP#62]

Not a road story, but a state troop was involved.  When I lived in the keys many moons ago, a buddy of mine that lived down the street had a bunch of um plants growing in pots in the backyard.  These were the um ones that look kinda like tomato plants, but better.  Anyway, one day he gets a knock at the door and its a state trooper that was making his rounds through the neighborhood.  The trooper says are those your plants in the backyard?  My buddy, looking down and thinking he's hosed now says yeah.  The trooper says get them out of sight of the road . . . dumbass.  And leaves.   The keys used to be a wild place.
-RP

[Jess from VA]

Honesty is the best policy.........

When I was 18 and had my Dodge Dart Swinger with the 318 V8, I dropped my best friend off at his car in the Winn Dixie parking lot about midnight one night.......the streets were wet and I couldn't resist punching the gas pedal to the floor and spinning my tires through half the parking lot......problem was, there was a policeman sitting across the creek with his headlights off....tucked in beside one of the stores....

I saw him hit his blue lights and take off towards me.....I had just turned out into Hwy 441, the main drag, and I pulled over on the side of the road and waited on him to pull up behind me......he asked for all the usual paperwork and ran my plates.....I told him I was just being stupid for doing a burnout in the parking lot and to go ahead and give me a ticket.....he thanked me for being honest and told me NOT to do it again and let me go........

I couldn't begin to know how many tickets I DIDN'T write during my career when drivers were honest with me. 

Same on the other side Titan.  When caught misbehaving with no good or reasonable excuse, I have almost always said   'You got me, I did it, and I have no excuse"  with respect.  I had a bunch of moving violations in my youth, but was let go five or six times for every ticket I got.  And when speeding, most of my tickets were written for less speed than I was doing.  You earned those breaks with respect and honesty.

Today in Fairfax County VA, however, almost no one get let off, if you get pulled over you get a ticket, and they won't drop one mile an hour off the speed, even if it means 6 instead of 4 points, on a clean record.  Orders from the top, and all about money of course.   I suspect it is this way in many urban areas these days.