| Alright, I guess it's about time I FINALLY posted something about this since it happened about 7 months ago already. This post has been on the back burner for a long time now. This little story takes place on New Year's Eve 2007 as I was driving back to Eureka after spending a few days with my family in Sactown. I was headed north on Highway 101 around 7:30-8:30 pm in either northern Mendocino or southern Humboldt County (believe me, they look just the same, especially at night). As one might expect to see on New Year's Eve, the California Highway Patrol was out in force, and there seemed to be black and white cars all over the road. As is typical on my drives home, the road was fairly empty, but cars going above the speed limit would still occasionally catch up to and pass me. Then at one point, one car caught up to me and stayed in my lane behind me. At first I didn't think too much of it, but eventually my curiousity became stronger when I realized this car didn't want to pass. It would get closer and then fall back a ways. Finally, the car got close enough behind me that I could see the bars in the car through my rearview mirror. "Ah ha," I thought. "So it's a cop." Well, I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, but he kept following me for several minutes. I just watched my speedometer even more closely than I normally do and kept on going. Finally, he turned his lights on and pointed his spotlight at the back of my truck. I thought, "Oh, great. Now what?" I had never in my life been pulled over before and, needless to say, I was more than a little nervous about what was going on. I started slowing down, but didn't immediately see what I thought looked like a safe place to pull over. Finally after several seconds, I found a place and stopped my truck. The officer walked up to my passenger window and knocked on it in order to get me to roll the window down. After I rolled the window down, officer #1 (as he will be called from now on) said, "The reason I pulled you over was because you were driving pretty poorly back there. You were in and out of your lane about half a dozen times and straddling the line on the road." Well, this was news to me! I had never been accused of being a bad driver before, and I thought I was driving pretty good, myself. But I certainly didn't want to get into a big debate with the nice police officer, so I said the biggest argument I could think of: "Really!?" He asked me where I was coming from, and I told him. Then he asked for me driver's license, registration, and insurance, which I happily handed over. He gave the paperwork to officer #2 so he could radio the information into dispatch and check up on me while officer #1 continued to talk to me. Officer #1 continued, "Someone actually reported you. Someone called and reported a silver Dodge Dakota weaving all over the road and throwing cans out the window. That's why two patrol cars are here tonight." Well, I hadn't noticed that there were two different patrol cars behind me; I thought both officers had come from the same car. So I said something that probably wasn't the brightest thing to say: "Oh, I didn't notice there were two of you back there." D'oh! Maybe I shouldn't have said THAT! Officer #1 said, "It also took you a while for you to notice me behind you." I didn't say anything in response to that, but I was thinking, "What are you talking about? I've seen you following me for the last 10 minutes!!!" Finally he got to the point: "Do you mind stepping out of the truck for a couple minutes?" I thought, "You've got to be kidding me," but out loud I said, "Sure, no problem." So I followed officer #1 behind the truck and stood where he asked me to stand. Keep in mind that it was pitch black outside, which only added to the frightening aspect of the whole thing. Around this time, officer #2 was still occupied with dispatch. Officer #1: "You seem really nervous. Have you ever been pulled over before?" Me: "No, never." Officer #1: "Never? Not even for a speeding ticket or anything?" Me: "Nope, first time in my life." He took a pen out of his pocket and said, "I want you to follow the pen with your eyes without moving your head." Then he started moving the pen from side to side. I don't know exactly what I was thinking, but it might have gone something like this: "I know I haven't been drinking, but eyes, please don't fail me now! Do whatever it is you're supposed to do while following a pen. And please don't move, head!" I'm just glad he didn't ask me to walk a straight line, because sometimes I can't even do that on a good day without tripping, falling, or running into something! When he was done, he asked me, "Have you had anything to drink at all?" I said no. He asked me if I was tired, and I told him that I was a bit tired, that I had just worked a bunch of night shifts, and then I had driven to Sacramento and back for the weekend. Then he proceded to take my pulse. I'm sure it must have been a new world record because I could feel my heart going about 90 mph. He pulled out his pen again and moved it toward my nose to make my eyes go crossed. Then he asked me to follow the pen again and did his routine again. Finally, I guess he was satisfied. He told me that he normally liked to be very thorough about things, but he saw no reason to continue checking me out any further. He said he could see no signs of my being under the influence of anything and could not smell any alcohol in the truck. He looked at officer #2 (who had finished talking to dispatch about the fact that my truck's registration was current and there was nothing wrong with me), and officer #2 just shrugged his shoulders. Officer #1: "That report of throwing a can out the window doesn't make any sense to you, does it?" Me: "Not at all." Officer #1: "Well, we have to fill out some paperwork real quick here since we both had to spend our time talking to you out here tonight. We are a state agency; I'm sure you understand." Me: "I do understand. As a matter of fact, I work for the government too." Officer #1: "Oh yeah, who do you work for." Me: "I work for the National Weather Service up in Eureka." This launched a whole (but brief) conversation about how I had worked in Texas and then moved to Eureka, and how I went to school to get my meteorology degree. He even mentioned that I must have known how it would be cold out there that night, which it certainly was. Then officer #2 gave me back my paperwork, officer #1 wished me a good night, and I went on my way. The truly ironic thing about this whole experience is that I have never in my life even tasted a drop of alcohol, let alone would I ever consider drinking and driving. It also left me wondering: Hmmm.......if I had really been swerving and driving erratically like officer #1 said I was, wouldn't you think there would be at least reckless driving ticket or something? How interesting. I guess he just felt he needed a nice excuse to pull me over after all. And to top off the strangeness of the story, in case you haven't noticed, officer #2 never said a single word to me or to officer #1 during this entire ordeal. Am I the only one that finds that odd? So, my latest theory is this: Ph.D. boy (if you don't know who that is, that's a whole other story) knew that I was driving back home along Highway 101 and thought he would have some fun by making a prank call to the CHP concerning a vehicle exactly like mine driving poorly and throwing cans out the window. Seems logical, right? Anyway, thanks a lot, man! |
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