8.12.2007

Busted.

So I got pulled over last night while riding home. It was 10:30pm and I was on a stretch of road that sees about 3 cars an hour yet has 6 stop signs within a mile. By the last stop sign I wasn't looking forward to losing all my momentum again so I just slowed, looked both ways, checked behind me for cops, and cruised through. About 30 seconds later I saw flashing lights behind me and said, "aw shit" out loud. I pulled well over on the shoulder and took off my helmet, in doing so I popped out my earbuds so he wouldn't ticket me for that too (can't have earphones in both ears while driving or biking). He cautiously approached me with his flashlight scanning.
"You've been blowing through stop signs bud!"
"Uh... yeah. I slowed enough to check for cars, but.."
"Yeah, but you got to stop all the way like we do! Got your license?"
At this point I thought, dude, cops never make complete stops! But I remained silent and handed over my license. He calls my name into his radio, pauses and looks over my bike, noticing the lights, panniers, etc.
"You look like you ride a lot?"
"Yeah, I.."
His radio barks back at him and he hands me back my ID.
"Well you're not what we're after. I'm not gonna give you a ticket, just stop at all of 'em from now on."
"Definitely. Thank you very much, I will. Thanks."
I put on my helmet and start riding, he passes me, drives up to the next stop sign, slows down some, then runs it, eventually disappearing around the next bend.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Maybe he thought you were a tweaker and then realized you are a decent person.

Dr. Logan said...

Ha. Little does he know...

Yokota Fritz said...

It sounds like the failure to stop was just an excuse to check your ID.

I don't think moving violations while on bike don't dock any points against your license in California.

D said...

"These are not the droids we're looking for." Were you using the force? :)
Crazy to imagine a copper pulling over a bicyclist though, especially for not stopping when there's no traffic around. I've never seen/heard of such a thing (maybe I'm too small town).