Good manners go a long way.

I got stopped a while back, apparently for running a red light.

As I pulled over I was wondering what in the name of Sam Hill I was getting pulled over for. At the same time I dug out my license, registration and proof of insurance. Then I rolled out the window and waited for the officer to approach me and ask for them.

"Do you know why I pulled you over?" he asked.

"I really don't," I confessed.

"You ran a red light," he said.

My brows furrowed and I thought. 'I honestly don't recall running a red light," I replied and thought a few seconds. "Wait, was it the one that is at the 'T' intersection that the other end is the alley?"

"It was," he replied.

"I very well might have run that particular one," I confessed. It is a sneaky one and seems to be out of place and I have found myself almost missing it a couple of times. it really doesn't seem like it belongs there. I very well might have missed it."

He glanced at my license and told me I was a long way from home. I told him I was a sailor that had just gotten ashore and was headed home. He said I seemed to be headed in the wrong direction and I explained that I was picking up a bottle of Cognac for a friend.

"No law against that," he grinned.

He took my license and registration and went back to his patrol car and ran them. He returned a few minutes later.

"I woke up and wasn't in a very good mood," he said. "I was in the mood to write a few tickets today, but you were so polite and respectful I am going to let this one slide."

Sometimes good manners pay pretty good dividends.


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The aforementioned trip home was a pretty good day for being stopped by law enforcement people. It has been years since I have been stopped even once. Now I was stopped twice in three hours. Go figure. When it rains, it pours. On the turnpike I got stopped again! This time I wass accused of speeding, but I really wasn't speeding.

I saw what had happened. Some guy was running up my tail going like the hammers of hell and then when he saw the cop he climbed all over the brake and got on my tail. Apparently the radar had picked him up and it looked like I was the speeder.

Thank God for GPS.

On a whim I had luckily reset the trip a few minutes earlier and had been staying pretty much within the speed limit. The trip log showed that.

What I haden't reset was the max speed log. It read 567 mph.

When the officer told me that he had recorded me at driving over 80 mph, I politely explained to him that I thought he had made a mistake and told him about the guy coming up fast and hard behind me and tucking into my tail at the last minute. He looked pretty dubious, of course.

I pointed out that I had reset my GPS about 10 minutes earlier and we could look at it and that might show I hadn't been speeding, or at the very least, driving in excess of 80 mph.

I reached up and my moving average for the past 10 minutes was something like 64.8, just under the posted limit.

Then he looked and saw where my max speed read 567 mph and his eyes grew a little big.

"What's with the 567 mph?" he asked. He looked like he was really getting ready to write me a ticket for 567 mph!

I grinned. "You would look pretty funny in court giving a man a ticket for driving a four-cylinder pickup 567 mph," I said and he flushed a bit.

"I guess I would," he said and by the look on his face he felt a little foolish.

"What's with the 567 mph?" he asked.

"Well, my other car..." I started, "Actually I brought the unit on an airplane in my carry-on. Apparently the slide switch got jostled and turned it on and it picked up the signal at 35,000 feet and logged the speed of the airplane."

"Why don't you reset it?" he asked.

"That's a pretty neat trophy," I answered. "Would you reset yours if it happened to you?"

He thought a second. "I see your point. I probably would, but I can see why someone wouldn't." he said. "Pretty good bragging rights."

He returned to the original reason he had stopped me.

"I don't think I could get a conviction," he said. "Not with your GPS reading the way it does. I'll have to let you go."

I attribute that one not to good manners, but to good luck.

Then again, had I been rude, there is no telling what he might have decided to dig up to write me up on, so I guess my good manners probably helped.


my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/