Last Sunday the wife and I were coming home from a weekend in Branson. I decided to take the scenic route home and drove down Hwy 7 for a change of scenery. Just north of Russellville Ar the highway becomes 4 lane and I hammered the skinny pedal to get around a line of cars I'd been behind. No sooner than I cleared the last car I passed an Arkansas State trooper. He immediately flipped on the lights and hooked a U turn. I immediately begin to calculate the massive ticket I was about to receive, 75+ in a 55.
After the usual exchange he quickly came back to my truck and said since I have a clean record he was giving me a warning. Then he asked me about my truck and complimented me on how beautiful it was. Asked how it towed, etc. When I told him I had just gotten it and that my previous truck was a GM he lit up and told me he was a lifelong Ford guy and that his wife was a Chevy fan. We had a nice conversation about why Ford was better than Chevy and I was on my way.
I think we all know the real reason why he let me go.

 

That's awesome. Nice to hear stories like this vs. the usual "another state trooper screwed me with a huge fine."

 

Probably because your wife is so good looking.

 

So you got out of a ticket because of your F250 privilege?

 

Darn. I ordered a 350.

 

Nice. That’s a good story. My guess is you were very respectful to the cop and that didn’t hurt either. These bad boys get up and go!

 

you aint kidding...

 

Great story.

I was stopped about 2 years ago in my 2011 F-250. It was about 1:30am in the morning and I was driving home from the airport. My flight had been delayed multiple times so I was very tired, irritable and just ready to get home. I was going up the 4 lane highway in Northwest Austin called RM2222. As I topped a big hill and passed some apartments I was probably above 75 MPH. I looked up and saw the cop before he turned on his lights. About a 1/2 mile down the road was the turn into my subdivision so I turned in, pulled over and shut off the truck. It took him about 2 minutes to catch up and pull up behind me. Actually two cop cars pulled up - one in front and one behind. Like you I was assuming the worse on a ticket/fine. After the usual exchange, one officer went to check my information. The other stood and talked with me. He asked "Hey, where are you going in such a hurry." I said "I am going home. My flight was nearly 4 hours late getting in, I am tired, hungry and just worn out." He chucked and then flashed the light to my back seat where my suitcase was sitting. Then he said "I love your truck". We then talked about my truck for a while. I have the look of a US Marine even though I have never served so he asked that question. After I said no he said "You look like law enforcement, where do you work?". Again I explained that I was not in the military or law enforcement. I was continually saying "Yes Sir" and "No Sir", etc. Being very respectful and humble as I was definitely in the wrong and these guys were just doing their job.

As the first officer returned, the guy I was talking with said "Hey this guy is just trying to get home knows he was speeding and seems like a stand up fellow." The other officer responded with "yeah - he is clean and looks tired but he is definitely not drunk or drinking." So they explained that they were really looking for DUI offenders but couldn't let a 78 in a 55 just go by. I apologized and told them I knew I was speeding and was doing it on purpose to get home. Dumb mistake. They both thanked me for honesty and then one said "You are the nicest person I have ever pulled over. Thank you". They sent me on my way and just told me to slow down. No warning or nothing.

Net-Net - honesty, respect, and acknowledgement of wrong doing goes a long way. I applaud all of the law enforcement community. They work long hours and have a crappy job sometime and get treated unfairly. The vast majority of them are great people doing an outstanding job and serving the community.

Nuff said!

 

Respect and keeping your registration, insurance, license address current gets people out of more tickets than all the lawyers in the country combined.

If you don't look or act like a trouble maker most cops won't even bother to pull you over in the first place.

 

i was a chevy guy my entire life until now, with s short jeep stint in the middle


chevrolet had and still has the better gasoline engine, so far as i'm concerned


however, they lost me when the big blocks went away, they started killing cylinders and ford started to have nicer interiors


so now, the big block chevrolet guy from as far back as i've had a drivers license, has a ford diesel

 

+1. I am not sure why this is so hard for people to understand.

 

I really don't get why people are jerks to cops. I f i get pulled over i do anything i can to speed the exchange along, including having papers in one place. Putting keys on the dash, rolling windows down, both hands on the steering wheel etc... If its at night, ill turn on the dome light so they can see better in the vehicle, and everyone leaves happily. Always helps to be respectful, and just admit to speeding.

 

Troopers have nothing to do with the size of the fine, youll have to talk to your state legislature about that.

 

I agree. Most cops aren't jerks, just doing a job and if you're respectful to them they will be the same to you. There are always statistical outliers though and i tend to find them. When i was younger(19 or 20?) I was driving my nearly new 2001 Trans AM WS6 down one of our main streets going home. It had rained a few hours earlier and the roads were still wet. The tires on my WS6 were great in the dry, in the wet though? Not so much. So I was taking it slow. I got pulled over by a guy who was either having a bad day or simply on a power trip wanting to show "some punk kid in a loud car" a lesson. I pulled over, rolled down the window, and turned on the dash lights. He came up and immediately said "I could take you to jail and impound your car for how you're driving, you know that right?". I couldn't figure out what the hell he was talking about. He proceeded to mutter something about punk kids, took my license and insurance and went back to his car. Came back with an impeding traffic ticket. Why? I was doing 40 in a 45. Was my WS6 loud? Yep. Was I impeding traffic? No. There were probably 3 other cars within 5 city blocks from me. I tried fighting the ticket but that specific one in Texas is "officer discretion." Yep the punk kid with the 60 hour a week IT job trying to drive safe got his ticket that night...

 

I know exactly where you were. You were just South of Dover Arkansas. I know the area well from my motorcycle riding days.