A while ago, I used to casually watch "COPS" the allegedly real-life tv show depicting police encounters, but the show was cancelled after one of our national tragedies which made police work unpopular. A short while ago, I came across Cop-Cam on the internet, and started indulging in the somewhat guilty pleasure of viewing it when I can't sleep.
I feel compelled to relate my own encounters with the traffic police.
The first encounter was an accident after I had driven Dorothy to the doctor's office in Stillwater late in the evening hours. I'd stopped at the Stop Sign at the end of the street and had just proceeded to drive forward to make the right turn toward home when a large sedan came barreling down the hill and smashed into the left front side of my car, ripping off its outer surface. The driver, a portly man clad in a business suit, and apparently inebriated, got out and spoke with the local cop. I believe the driver was the owner of an insurance company or maybe a lawyer, someone of importance, and known to the cop. His car was in the road. My car was just a few feet out on the street I was leaving. I remember the oficer measuring the distance. There was a bustle of people standing around the car in the road, when another car approached from the rear and smashed into the rear of the car in the road. With considerable force, actually moving the struck car forward. That driver was staggering drunk when he exited the vehicle.
Both of those vehicles were disabled. I was able to drive my car home and must have gotten a citation of some sort, but Dick Lohnes did what he did so well, and nothing ever came of it that affected me or my driving record, just a repair bill.
I worked at the Telephone Company in Troy for a time, and called in sick only one day when I had an appointment for a job at the State Education Building in Albany. As I was driving somewhere in the vicinity of Mario's, I was pulled over by a motorcycle cop--for speeding. I said I thought I was out of the 30 mph area, but he said "The Troy speed limit applies from when you enter Oakwood coming from Valley Falls." I must have thanked him because he let me go ---with that warning.
I had finished my final paper toward my Master's Degree one fine summer day and had driven to Albany in my new Chevrolet Impala Convertible, accompanied by the 2 Bartholomew girls, and submitted the masterpiece. I drove home through Stillwater and smack into the rear of a car that was stopped in the road. In my defense there was a huge tree on the right where the road curved which blocked the view on approach.The occupants were a honeymooning couple from out of the area, unfamiliar with the road, and had stopped in the road to figure out whether they should make a turn off to the left. I was issued a ticket for following too closely. ( I really wasn't because I hadn't seen them until my 8 cyl. engine couldn't stop in time.) Again, the ticket was dismissed thanks to the liking the Stillwater Town Justice seemed to have for Dave and his defense efforts, and the vehicle charges were dismissed through the efforts of Dick Lohnes.
When Ma died, her dog Jumbo disappeared and I drove to the Menands Animal Shelter to see if anyone might have found him and turned him in there. I was driving Dave's car and was issued a ticket by a Menands cop for his expired inspection sticker, which was just a few days past due. BooHoo
And there was the time when Dorothy, Dave and I had dinner at the Eagle Bridge Restaurant and Dorothy and Dave were feeling good and when we left they decided to dance along the top of the low rail fence at the front of the restaurant. The cops must have been targeting the place because I the driver was pulled over right away. The cop said because I was weaving, which of course I wasn't drinking or weaving. My dear sister, chortling in the back seat, offered to the cop that "She always drives that way, hee hee, hee." I don't think he even asked for my license. It was obvious I was the designated driver, for the dancing drunks. It was fun though.
My latest traffic stop was several years ago when I was driving to the VVH one cold day to visit Dave. I was pulled over by Pine Lake for an expired inspection sticker. The cop asked if I knew why he pulled me over. I said no. He told me, and said I should have it inspected asap before someone else issued a ticket.
Of course, 2 State Troopers were later to come to our house and make an arrest, but that's a different story..
(When you live alone, you become prone to talk to yourself. Or write about things.
No comments:
Post a Comment