Many people hate abusive traffic cops.
But sometimes, you will find individuals who, instead of reporting or fighting back a rude and obnoxious officer, will simply play along with their games.
He thought of a creative way how to waste the time of a traffic cop who kept on flagging him just to get cop money.
We made a traffic cop give up his “feeding trough”
Salutations, fellow petty revengers! This is a story from my youth.
To briefly sum up the situation: nearby where I live, there is a road that goes all around my city.
The particular section in this story comes up a slight hill, then it goes downward for quite a while, maybe a full mile, and at the end of it, there is a big parking area for a local big store.
Meet Officer Mike.
One of those days, a traffic cop had made that downward mile stretch his “feeding trough” spot.
He parked his car behind some bush and hid behind it, waiting for a passing car to suddenly jump out and stop.
Note: this is not in the US, so the cops here don’t need a probable cause to stop cars.
He stopped OP for breaking the speed limit.
So, one night, he stopped me in my car.
Very rude, very condescending, very sure of himself, arrogant, I-am-above-God attitude.
He checked my documents (all in order), checked the car (all in order), checked everything, and all was in order.
Then, he showed me his radar gun, and it showed way over the speed limit.
OP knew the violation was erroneous.
Now, I knew for a fact that I wasn’t speeding.
I don’t know what he had done to the instrument, maybe he didn’t reset it from the previous reading, maybe it wasn’t working at all, I don’t know.
But he wrote me a ticket for driving 32km/h (20 mph?) over the limit.
The same thing happened the following night.
Same thing happened the next night when I was going home from a gathering with friends.
This time, I knew he might be there, so I was extra careful with my speed.
He saw my lights, jumped out to stop me, and showed me the radar: 32km/h over the speed limit. The exact same number from last night.
And I knew the jig is on.
OP noticed it became a routine for the cop.
It’s a big part of our “cop culture” here that the first thing a cop says when he comes up to your window is not “License and registration,” it’s “You’re speeding, what are we gonna do now?”
And most people prefer to give the cop some part of the ticket’s value, instead of paying it to the state in full.
This cop has made this spot his personal money maker.
He wanted to catch the cop at his game.
I knew that I can’t prove anything or do anything about it back then.
Remember, this is not the US, we don’t have your guys’ luxuries.
My word against his would always end with him winning in those days. Exceptions were truly rare.
So, I knew I had to get him another way.
So he tagged his friends along in the plan.
That weekend, I gathered my friends, and we cooked a plan.
We waited for the evening, and I was ready at the start of the stretch. We confirmed the cop was again there, and we began.
I drove down, he stopped me, I said “Good evening, officer Mike.”
He looked at me and said, “We know our lesson now, do we?” I nodded, gave him a 20, and he let me go.
They used another car and drove back to where the cop was waiting.
I drove to the parking area, parked my car, jumped in a friend’s car. We went out of the parking area, made a U-turn, drove the mile back up the hill, and switched places.
I then drove down again, he stopped the new car, and came to my window.
I said, “Good evening, officer Mike,” with a 20 in my hand. He was stunned and just waved me to go.
And then, another car.
I went to my friends, and we laughed for several minutes.
Then, I got into yet another car, did the same drive, and the same switch.
This time he didn’t even come to the window. He shone his flashlight, saw it’s me, and waved me to go.
This time, OP used props and costumes.
He knew me now, so I had to up my game. Wigs, scarfs, hats, hoodies, even a fake moustache, all went into play.
He stops me, flashlights the masked me, walks up, hears “Good evening, officer Mike” with the 20 in hand, and waves.
One of those times he actually asked me, “What are you doing?! Don’t you have something better to do?”
And I said, “No, officer Mike. We got aaaaaall weekend free.”
Eventually, the cop got tired and wasn’t found at the same spot again.
Eleven times we did that, in the span of like 3 hours.
On the 12th run, he wasn’t there anymore, and I never saw him again.
I wish we had camera phones, dashcams, and Go-Pros back then. It would be so much easier to load my car with cameras and annihilate his ass in court, but I don’t regret it much.
It definitely wouldn’t be so much fun.
Let’s read how other people react to this story.
Can anyone confirm?
Here’s a petty and gross suggestion.
Or perhaps a fake money?
This user says to just bring the whole thing to court.
If he has the time to play games, then play his game with him!
If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.