I’ve never been pulled over by a cop before. Honest! I am (cough, cough) years old and I’d never been pulled over. I’ve never worn lipstick, I’ve never worn high heels, I’ve never had a manicure, and I’d never been pulled over. Until tonight…and I hadn’t even driven a BLOCK before I was stopped!
So what was I doing? Driving without my headlights! At first when he said that, I didn’t know what the heck he was talking about. I had my headlights on…my dashboard was all lit up. I had to actually get out and look. He was right; my headlights weren’t on. How could that be???
The problem was I was driving my husband’s car (which I do very rarely…only when my husband needs the van and I need to go someplace, too). And I don’t think I’ve ever driven it at night before. I did not realize that the dashboard lights up WHEN YOU START THE CAR rather than when you turn the headlights on! (How stupid is that? On my van, the dashboard doesn’t light up until you turn on the headlights.) And everything was pretty lit up downtown Iowa City, so…I didn’t realize I didn’t have my lights on.
I told the police officer I’d never been pulled over before. I’m not sure if he was impressed or not (it took me a while to locate the insurance and registration…and like I said, I had to actually CHECK to see that my lights weren’t on, so he probably thought I was too much of a flake to have NEVER been pulled over before…that, or he thought I STOLE the car…)…but once I managed to produce my license, insurance and registration cards, he said that “if everything checked out,” he’d let me off with just a warning. (I knew I hadn’t stolen the car…and I was pretty sure there were no outstanding arrest warrants…or even parking tickets, so I breathed a sigh of relief.) And he kept his word…he let me off with just a warning. (Kinda makes me wonder how steep the ticket he COULD have given me would’ve been?)
So now I can’t say I’ve never been pulled over anymore. I CAN say I’ve never been pulled over for SPEEDING, though.
BTW, the luminaries were beautiful…it’s amazing to think the entire city of Coralville is lit up tonight. (Well, except for the few blocks here and there that no one seemed to be in charge of.) I enjoyed it tonight…I won’t enjoy it tomorrow when I see all the bags blowing around…(Please, people…take in your bags!!!)
Ack. That is really, really scary when blue lights appear. I’m glad you just got a warning.
The only time I was ever pulled over was at a road block coming off Mount Desert Island. I was so ridiculously frightened and a reporter, and all the cops knew me because I was in charge of the police beat. Even though I hadn’t been drinking I was shaking and the cop was all, “Hey, it’s Carrie!”
Then we talked for so long that I’m sure every car that passed through thought I’d drank a keg and couldn’t get out of the car.
I did, however, get a date out of the deal.
A DATE???
You got a DATE out of the deal???
Re: A DATE???
I know. It’s so weird.
He must have had a thing for pathetic, terrified women who aren’t drunk at 2 a.m.
Actually, he was very nice.
Re: A DATE???
But not a keeper, eh?
I’m glad you didn’t get a ticket, but I bet you did feel silly driving around without headlights and not knowing it (LOL!).
And I know the feeling: The flashing lights, the realization of “OMG, it’s ME he’s after,” is enough to send one’s heart into atrial fibulation.
It happened to me about a year ago when I sailed through a 3-way stop (this is right by where I live and I’ve stopped there probably 1,000 times). It’s dark, so out comes the officer’s little pen light shining into my eyes and the deep-voiced, “May I see your license and registration?” Of course, I’d left my purse at home, so no license! Got off with a warning, too, just like you. 🙂
You went through a stop sign, didn’t have your license and you still got off with just a warning??? I am virtually certain it would not have gone that way for me with this particular cop…he was a University cop…they’re known for being pretty hard-nosed.
I just acted all flustered, then flashed my pearly whites and batted my 50-plus-year-old eyelashes at him and ….. well, no ticket!
Oh, I definitely had the “acting all flustered” part down…I’ll have to work on the “flashing my pearly whites and batting my eyelashes” thing for next time. (Hopefully there won’t be a next time.)
Oh good! You could see them. That means it’s not just working on my computer! (Thanks for letting me know.)