Tuesday, November 11, 2008

License and Registration, Please

I got pulled over today a few blocks from my house. Yep. Not yesterday on the freeway on my way home from Odgen. Oh wait, that happened too.

Today I was minding my own business on my way to the store for a few things to make pumpkin bread as a thank you to my friends who watched some of my kids while I went to California over the weekend. I am coming down the hill when I see flashing lights following a car ahead of me. I think, "wow, I've never seen a cop on this street pull someone over, I better slow down, I'm going 45. Oh look, there's a cop sitting on that bench and there's one turning the corner and is now right behind me. Crap, I didn't put my new tags on, well, he won't pull me over, it's only been a week and a half since they expired." "Ohhh crap!" (Wait, I think I swore when the lights went on behind me). I pull into the exact same gas station where the first car was getting a ticket. When the cop asked me for my license, registration and insurance I knew I was in trouble. I gave him my license, told him my new tags were sitting on my counter, and rummaged through my glove box pretending to look for the current insurance card knowing full well I didn't have it but I had all sixty-three others. He tells me to wait in the car. (Because I'm a flight risk with two of my kids with me??)

In the end he brings me back my citation for going 46 in a 35 zone, and failure to carry insurance. What? Nothing for an expired registration or a 5-year-old sitting buckled without his car seat or texting while driving? (Just kidding, Numismatist)

Total: $191.50
Going too fast (I refuse to call 46 mph speeding) = $75
Failure to carry insurance = $116.50 However, this will be removed when I provide proof of insurance at the courthouse.

And on the way home from the store, just up the same street, there were two cops standing on the corner with a radar gun and three cop cars lined up beside them. I think they were hoping to catch all the high school kids trying to get back to class before lunch was over. But seriously, that was 5 cop cars and 6 officers on the same 2 blocks in one hour.

Oh, and yesterday? Here' s how it went down:

Cop: "Do you have a front license plate?
Me: "Oh, this is my husband's car, I'm sure he does."
Cop: "OK, just get it mounted on the front. Have a safe trip."
Me: "Thank you, I will."

I think Mr. Policeman was hoping to nail a 16-year-old punk kid racing down the freeway in a 1991 Honda Civic Hatchback (with a tweaked muffler so it makes extra noise) and instead he got a mom in her mid (I mean early) thirties with a baby in the backseat.


Sure am glad Matt saved me from that cop I dated just before him.