How I Got Out Of My Last Traffic Ticket

You know that nervous feeling that you get in the pit of your stomach when you might be driving a little over the speed limit and you pass a parked police car hidden on the side of the road.

I had that feeling tonight on my way home from work and it reminded me of the one and only time that I have been pulled over and did not receive a ticket.
Now you might be one of those people that has the gift of escaping a ticket and if you are – keep it to yourself! I’m not one of those people and every time I have ever been pulled over, I have received a ticket of some variety. Although on a warm summer evening last year, I finally experienced the joy of getting out of a ticket.

Background

While I was in college, I always renewed my drivers license through the mail and received a sticker to place on the back of my license with an updated expiration date. Because of this my license still had my parent’s home address even after I had been married and bought my first house with my wife.
My wife never understood why I didn’t just go and get myself a new license with our home address. To be honest, it was mostly out of laziness but this worked in my favor last summer.
On my way home from working out with a buddy of mine, I was cutting through the back streets of a neighboring town. I was anxious to get home and show off my new muscles. There was a woman driving in front of me as we approached a three-way stop sign. When the woman came to a complete stop and sat there for a second, I was disgusted with the prim and proper road etiquette that she was displaying.

The Rolling Stop

By the time she finally made her way through the stop sign, I decided to just kind of roll through it and might not have come to a complete stop. That was when I looked down the side street to the left and saw the police car sitting there.
As I drove forward, nervously checking my mirror, my fears were realized as I saw the lights flick on and the police car ease in behind me. Sitting there in my workout clothes, I draped my arm out the open window as the cop approached my door. He took my license and retreated to his cruiser.

The Great Escape

A few minutes later he returned to my door, handed me my license and asked what I was doing over in this area. As I mentioned I was just leaving a buddies house after working out, I realized that I couldn’t say I was heading home because you’ll recall that my license had my parent’s address – which was in the opposite direction of where I was headed. So I casually mentioned that I was heading over to a friend’s house before returning home.
I’ll never forget the next comment from the cop. He said, “Is it a lady friend?”
I responded with a polite, “Yes sir.” At this point he told me to enjoy my evening and to try and do a better job at the next stop sign. As I sat there in disbelief at what had just happened, I think I realized what may have gotten me out of my ticket.
While sitting with my arm out the window of the car, he may have noticed my wedding ring. When I explained that I was heading over to see a “lady friend” that was in the opposite direction of my “home” address, he assumed that I was cheating on my wife and didn’t want to make me have to explain to my wife what I was doing in that area.
Now I have no idea if any of that played into his decision to let me go with a warning but given that I had never been pulled over without receiving a ticket, that is my story and I am sticking to it.
Photo courtesy of southernfried