Once again it was late, about 11:30 pm on a Tuesday night, and I was at the PD again. I had been spending most of the night just doing nothing but security checks. We have been having some problems with some businesses in town. One of them is a machine shop that fabricates motorcycle parts out of billet aluminum. They dump all of the aluminum shavings into a large recycling dumpster. Then a recycling company comes around and pays them for the recycled material. Well, thanks to the growing meth epidemic the dumpster keeps getting broken into and they always steal about pickup truck full of the aluminum shavings. According to the business owner, they only get about 50 bucks every time they cash in on the stolen material. Dumb! Dopers have got to be some of the stupidest people on the planet. They only commit crimes that are annoying to everyone else. Only a meth monkey would drive around all night looking for scrap metal to steal.
Anyway back to my story. So there is this new law passed this year in Oregon. Its meant to crack down on aggressive drivers. Yes believe it or not, there is a serious problem lately with aggressive drivers in our area. The law accelerates fines for drivers traveling over 100 miles per hour on any roadway. If you thought the measly 140ish dollar fine was bad for speeding, try $1,103.00 for going faster than 100 mph!
So after doing a few of my security checks and finding nothing unusual, I thought, “What the hell, I’ll head out to the hwy and see what I find.” Usually on days in the middle of the week I’d be lucky even to see any cars going down the road. I pulled into my normal hidey hole and set up the Lidar. The average speed of traffic was around 58 mph and that was when a car drove by. I think that only about two cars drove by every fifteen minutes. I don’t really know why, but for some reason I just sat there staring off into the darkness.
A few moments later, I noticed some headlights. I could see right away that they were moving pretty fast. Infact, I could hear the tire noise even thought they were about a mile out. I picked up the Lidar and checked the speed. 99! “It must be a cop.” I thought to myself. I checked it again. 100..101 Then I started thinking as it approached. Wait a minute, there isnt anything going on out west, why would a cop be driving so fast? Then it passed. The wind noise as it went by sounded like space ship or a jet landing. I looked closely, “Oh shit! Its a Toyota Camry!”
I slammed the patrol car in gear and mashed my foot to the accelerator. Though I was driving the fastest car in our fleet, the tail lights of the Toyota were quickly getting smaller and smaller. I reached over and hit the lights. The patrol cars super bright Federal Signal Radian all LED light bar lit up the night in a blue, red, and purple hue. The Toyota was now about a mile away but I had started gaining. For a while the Toyota didnt appear that they were going to stop. I thought, “Oh, great another pursuit!” But, I think that the driver must have realized that it was futile, because the car just suddenly came to a stop just west of the city.
The driver pulled the car to the left and parked on the inside median. I hate when people do that. They tell you over and over in the drivers manual and in driver’s ED to slow down and pull to the right when there is an emergency vehicle behind you. Its not that hard, especially when you are the only person on the road. Anyway, I contacted the driver who was an early 20’s white female adult. I said, “Do you know why I have you stopped tonight?” She appeared as though she was crying. She said, “Yeah, I was speeding a little bit.” I said, “Just a little bit huh?” The woman, looked down at her steering wheel and said, “Look, I’m on my way to save my marriage. I’m upset and I just wasnt paying attention.” I just stared at her for a minute with the stupidest look I could professionally muster up. “You mean to tell me that you were driving down the road at over 100 mile per hour and you just didnt notice?”
I explained to her that I was going to write her a ticket for speeding. She said, “Well, I am really in a hurry so can you please write it fast?” I was like, “Um, you realize that there is a new law in effect that makes the fine $1103.00?” The normal reaction from someone when told that should be something along the lines of, “WHAT THE FUCK!!! OH FUCK!!!!” Instead this lady said, “Yeah, whatever!”
While I was writting out the cite, a buddy of mine from the Sheriffs Office rolled up to check on me. I told him that her demeanor was leading me to believe that she might go ahead and speed again. So he went a few miles up ahead and set up just incase. I think that was the most expensive traffic ticket that I have handed out in a while and she didnt even bat an eye at it. Later my buddy called me and told me that she went by him going 66mph.
I remember thinking, “Who ever her husband is, he’s probably gonna get an ear full when she arrives.” LOL. Take it easy guys.
