Ask a cop

Question:

"What's the weirdest thing you've ever experienced when trying to give someone a ticket? Do people actually try to con their way out of them?"

Answer:

People do all kinds of silly stuff to try to get out of receiving a citation, and sometimes it gets pretty hard not to make fun of them for it. The weirdest stuff I have seen, I wouldn't want to print publicly and encourage copy cats. I will give you an example of something I would have liked to say, but didn't.

A young man driving a nice sports car zips through a stop sign. I activate my lights and try to pull him over; no response. I hit the siren a couple of times; no response. He's not speeding, just keeps driving. I set the siren on constant and keep following. As I am watching him, I realize he is doing air guitar as he is driving. You know, acting like he is playing a guitar, and he is jamming! He finally notices me and pulls over.

I am thinking as I approach his car he wasn't paying attention to where he was going or his surroundings. I?asked him for his driver's license and if he knows why I?pulled him over. He says, "No, sir." I?explain and ask if there is any reason for how he is driving.

This is his out, his opportunity to say, "I just messed up, sorry I will pay more attention next time." A response like that, I would have been happy to tease him a little about the air guitar and give him a verbal warning but his response is, "I didn't know that was a stop sign, I am not from here."

WHAT!? I wanted to say, "What do stops sign look like where you are from? How about police cars, maybe they have flags and dancing monkeys or something." Instead I smiled and told him I would be ... giving him a citation for the stop sign violation.

Bottom line, we all try to come up with something clever to get out of bad situations we have put ourselves in. Your best bet, be honest. Let the officer know you recognize you made a mistake and will try not to make it again. He or she will do the right thing.