A Brush With The Law
Tonight, while I was fastening Maggie into her car seat, Jonas crawled into the front seat and started pushing all of the buttons and tweaking the switches. By the time I got him into his seat the wipers and hazard lights were flashing before my eyes in tandem bursts of brightness and swishing. It took me almost a minute of frantic button pushing before I figured out how to turn it all off.
Right before I drove off I noticed that my brights were still on so I switched them off then began the drive home. Five blocks later, I see flashing lights in my rearview mirror. Thus begins the panic.
Are those for me? ME? Well, there’s no one else here. Maybe he’s on his way somewhere past me. I’ll just pull over. Oh no, it IS me! What did I do? Was I speeding? I don’t think I was speeding. I looked a few blocks ago and I was only at 40, maybe I got faster. . .oh no. I can’t afford a ticket right now! We just spent half the month’s salary on fixing the darn car I can’t handle a ticket right now. Oh my gosh, he’s going to want the registration. . .wait, we paid that - we’re ok there, but where oh where did Chris put it? I better get my licence out. And turn off the radio. Jeez, what is taking him so long?
At that point a very bright light was shined into my wild eyed, panic stricken face. I was shaking, and had I not just emptied my bladder prior to getting in the car I am sure I would have peed my pants just like a cowardly Shi Tzu. I could barely see the strawberry blonde, forty something, friendly looking officer through the beam.
“Did you just leave a parking lot?”
“Yes.” How could he tell? Did I do something wrong all the way back there?
“I see you turned your instrument lights on but not your headlights.”” Great, how much is a driving with no lights on ticket?
“Ohhh. My three year old was fiddling with stuff and I thought I had it all put back right, but I guess I didn’t. I’ve never been pulled over before, what do you need from me?” Oh fabulous, that sounded really intelligent.
“Let me see your licence.” I hand it to him. Oh pleeeease don’t ask for the registration. He looks at the licence and at me again, then at the kids in the back.
“You can calm down. You’re not in trouble.” He gives me a smile. “This happens a lot; I just want you to be safe.”
“Ok.” The violent trembling isn’t stopping.
“Have a nice night.”
Meanwhile I am SCREAMING inside from the sheer panic of it all. I drive home very, very carefully thinking about speed limits and silly things like keeping my hands at ten and two, and being very thankfully he didn’t take my shock, horror and panic at being pulled over as guilty panic, like “I have crack in my glove compartment, please throw me on the ground and frisk me” panic.
So. There it is. A line has been crossed. Seven years of driving and I finally get pulled over. Thankfully, we still have the ticket line to cross, and of course the being asked for the registration line. Hopefully the being thrown to the ground and frisked line will never come.
Aren’t you glad he just wanted to warn you? I remember being scared stiff the first (and only) time I got pulled over. I was in college and driving home from a dance around midnight with friends in the car. My depth perception is bad and my night driving worse. I had a few miles of serious construction zone. At the end of it, those lights flashed. The officer pulled me over for drunk driving! Understand: I’ve never touched alcohol in my life. That must have been obvious because he didn’t even ask me to get out of the car. Construction cones/signs made me swerve. To this day, my husband forbids me to drive construction zones if I can possibly avoid it! It’s just mishaps waiting to happen.
Comment by Mom2Five — October 8, 2005 @ 5:58 am
*Whew!* You are so very fortunate that he was a nice guy, and really did have your safety foremost in my mind. Back home in the Detroit area, I simply can’t imagine anything like that taking place. There is no such thing as a courtesy stop nor warning there … they seem to look for excuses to stop you, just to see if they can find something to ticket you for.
Fortunately my record is okay, nevertheless. Lesson to you: stay away from the Detroit area!
Comment by Chrysalis — October 8, 2005 @ 11:52 am
wow. i mean, wow.
i wish most people i know that had brushes with the law had simple ‘pulled-over’ experiences that were that simple.
Comment by mai — October 8, 2005 @ 1:02 pm
Oh god, I would have panicked too!!!
Comment by soapbox.SUPERSTAR — October 8, 2005 @ 2:24 pm
You poor thing. LOL You sound just like me. I have yet to be pulled over in my almost 20 years of driving (yep, pull over/ticket free… that’s meee!) -knock on wood- but I can only imagine that that’s how I’d react, too. I’m glad you guys are safe! And what a nice officer.
Comment by Lisa — October 8, 2005 @ 4:40 pm
Awww. They always make you feel so guilty! He sounded nice though (some of them can be such a-holes hun.) Have a good weekend.
Comment by DenimRoseDesigns — October 8, 2005 @ 11:44 pm
Geez… what a panic.
Try this on: I got pulled over for driving past curfew. Curfew? Apparentlty he didn’t think I was old enough to drive past midnight. I was on my way back from the pharmacy with medicine for my sick baby. I guess the mini van and car seat didn’t give me the impression of being old enough. I am just glad that I had remembered my purse. It was one of those tired induced drives by sick non sleeping child.
Comment by Irish Breen — October 8, 2005 @ 11:52 pm
I have been driving for 15 years and have never been pulled over. I know the day I do I will burst into tears! For some reasons the police scare me!
Comment by Barbara — October 9, 2005 @ 12:18 am
I think it was the strawberry blondishness that got me. I reacted the very same way when I got stopped the first time. I had a taillight out and didn’t know it. Ugh!
Comment by Ruby — October 10, 2005 @ 3:43 pm
Mortgage
Comment by Mortgage Broker — October 12, 2005 @ 1:55 am
but what I wanna know is…was the cop cute?!
Comment by brandy101 — October 13, 2005 @ 6:54 pm