What dumb thing were you doing and got pulled over for it?

35 comments

1. one time i turned on a “do not turn on red” and a cop was behind me 😅

   luckily it was the first day of classes at college. and he gave me a warning since I was on my way to class.

2. I was driving a bit too close and someone started to turn right. I had to go around in the other lane to not rear end him. I got pulled over for failing to stay within marked lanes.

3. Speeding. Thought the speed limit was like 50 when it was really 35.

4. I had been practicing driving my friends standard shift for a few weeks. Finally my time to shine. I was going to be the dd for a party. I had an exam in the morning. I stalled going up hill. Then I decided I’d keep it in 2nd the rest of the way home. Got pulled over and had to do the whole 9 yards field sobriety as we were near a military base and they were super strict always. He let us go but it’s one of my favorite not getting a DUI stories.

5. Driving over 80 mph in Virginia… I was only 12 mph over the speed limit, which in most states doesn’t get you a second look but in VA (at least at that time) anything 80+ could be considered reckless driving.

   I lucked out and the officer only cited me for speeding, and my insurance apparently never found out nor did I get any points on my license (PA does not apply points for non-criminal out-of-state traffic offenses), so it worked out. But it was definitely dumb.

6. Blowing off steam coming home from work at 3am I was doing power slides around a traffic circle in a shopping center that was under construction in Charlotte NC.

   Cop was so impressed I had insurance, a motorcycle endorsement and was wearing my safety gear (and wasn’t drunk) she just let me go.
   She was pretty cute also. If I weren’t married I may have asked her out.

7. I was driving home at about 2am from work. I was on a very dark road but I knew the road well since I use it everyday. I decided to be dumb and turn off my light for a second twice. After the second time, i saw lights behind me 💀. Didn’t realize a cop was behind me with his lights off. He pulled me over and gave me a ticket for reckless driving.

   I was in my teens, it was stupid and deserved.

8. Not me, but this happened to my dad sometime in the late 80s. It was Sunday morning and he was driving down a 2-lane highway in suburban St. Louis. A cop was shooting radar, and my dad was going the speed limit, so he didn’t get pulled over or anything.

   A little bit down the road, he sees a car coming to him. Being the nice guy, my dad flashes his lights at the car to warn him about the speed trap ahead. It’s an unmarked cop. The cop hangs a u-turn and pulls my dad over. He calls my dad a dumbshit and writes him a ticket for “interfering with the use of police radar” or something like that. My dad, in his own words, was just laughing his ass off the whole time at the stupidity of the situation. It was a no-points violation, so I think he just paid the $30 or whatever it cost.

9. 85 in a 45, no motorcycle endorsement, 60ish miles from the city I live in. Rough day, stupid decisions only made it rougher.

   Apparently I was cool enough to the cop that I got away with a ticket instead of being arrested and having my bike impounded in a bum-fuck nowhere city.

10. Cruising around town with uncorked headers.

11. I, uh, well…how much time do you have?

12. Pulled into an alley (actually the wrong way on a one way) to make a three point turn while drunk as a skunk… Cop pulled me over, bawled me out, gave me a ticket and sent me on my way. Thankfully without noticing how drunk I was.

13. I was 15 I snuck out in the middle of the night and took my stepdad’s car. I picked up my boyfriend (also 15 and unlicensed) he wanted to drive so he drove us over to another friend’s house. We kept noticing people were flashing their headlights at us, but we ignored it. We never made it to our friend’s because we got pulled over for not having our headlights on. He tried to lie to the cops but I blurted out the truth. They had to send an officer to knock on my parents door because I’d taken the phone off the hook and they couldn’t get through. I was really lucky they did that instead of arresting us for driving without a license. I got my butt kicked at home though!

14. I was 19 and was drinking a root beer that came in brown glass bottle while passing a cop. Of course I was pulled over and the car was searched with nothing to find.

15. So during a snowstorm in Cincinnati, the city was pretty much shut down and it really wasn’t that bad compared to what I was used to. About 3am I was headed back to the hotel from the job site with my coworker from Texas.. Yeah… Smh. Anyways he mentioned he’d never done donuts in the snow and started to egg me on. I came up to a nice big intersection and after ensuring that I was the only vehicle on the roads I did a few… Unfortunately I didn’t see the cop sitting at the gas station. He lit me up the moment I pulled in. He let me off with a warning and after filling up, I had to push him out of the driveway so that I could get out lmfao.

16. Driving 90 in a 70mph zone.

    Totally my fault being careless on rural interstate highways on a sunny day. Paid the price, and that was a **very painful** lesson.

    Also once ran a stop sign in a residential neighborhood on a bike. Got let off with a verbal warning.

17. A friend in high school was an aspiring director, and we were shooting his indie film that had a few driving scenes. I pulled over to let someone else drive, because her character had some driving shots, and we got pulled over. The cop said it looked like I was drunk or high and was letting someone else drive.

    My dad happened to be a firefighter in that town, and when the cop looked at my license he goes “You one of Wally’s kids?” and then he let us go.

18. Mine was a college idiocy. A friend asked if I wanted to go walk to the local pharmacy. He was pissed no one wanted to walk with him. So I volunteered because I’d been writing a paper for about four hours and was done with it for the time being.

    He bought smokes which he said was his plan. I just waited outside. But, he also bought beer with a fake ID. He didn’t tell me that. He handed me his backpack while he tied his shoes. Within 10 seconds of me holding the bag a cop who had been watching us from across the road flipped on his lights and stopped us walking.

    So we both got tickets for minor in possession. I was *pissed.* I was even more pissed when I had to disclose that to the state bar as part of of my bar exam application and even though it drops off your record after you turn 21 I had to physically drive to the courthouse and get a letter proving they had a record that was expunged. It was like 6 hours of driving.

    I never even drank one of those beers.

    But looking back, how suspicious did I look as a young man in a small town showing up with another guy and standing outside while he went in and he comes out with a backpack and hands it to me?

19. My family owned a large abandoned quarry. It had a great swimming hole. It wasn’t too far from one of the bars I frequented and would take hook-ups there to go skinny dipping. One particular night after the bars closed one of these hook-ups and I didn’t some skinny dipping which led to some additional fun in the bed of my pickup. I was playing the music much louder than I should have because it woke up an old man that lived up in the cliff bordering the quarry. He retaliated by throwing firecrackers at us. Not knowing at the time what was happening we quickly hopped out of the bed, got in the cab and took off. Get out of there required me to go through some swampy/muddy areas and driving rather quickly, I stirred up a lot of water. We exited the quarry and at this point decoded to call it a night and take her back to the cottage she was renting. Unfortunately, she didn’t really know where she was and had a hard time finding it. Eventually, we passed the driveway and she recognized it, I made a U-turn in a parking lot just last there and a waiting cop flipped his lights on. At this point, she had gotten mostly dressed, but I was completely naked. She grabbed my shorts so I could cover up, but when the cop got to the window, he had a really good idea what was/had happened. He said he had been following me because my truck was really muddy and I was dragging cat tails under my truck, knew I was up to no good. He asked me what I was doing and I explained who I was, who my family was and that I was just dropping her off at her cottage. He agreed to let me go as long as I dropped her off and drove straight home. Which I did and he followed me the whole way.

20. I had done a lot of performance mods to my ’77 Cutlass. Had a friend with me, I stopped at a 4 way stop, only car around was a sedan parked about 100′ away. Stepping on the brake and gas at the same time, got the right rear tire spinning and smoked it through the intersection. That’s when I realized the sedan was a cop car with the new, low profile light bars on top.

    Didn’t even wait for him to pull me over. Stopped at a gas station about 500 feet away, had my license and insurance ready for him. He walked up to my car and was laughing. He told me that’s the dumbest thing he’s ever seen anyone do in front of him. Told him I was just showing my friend how much better my car ran and that I didn’t see the light bar on top. He ran my license, came back, handed it to me and said “next time you do that, look for cops”. No ticket so that was good.

21. I got pulled over for the same reason (no headlights on at 2am) and the cop simply reached in, turned them on for me, and then left.

22. I was coming home from a long day of manual labor and was rushing home to be with my friends and girlfriend who were all already hanging out together.

    I was following a black SUV that was about to turn right on a curve in a “no passing” zone, but I was too impatient to wait for them to turn off the road so I decided to pass them.

    There was a church across the street where cops would often hide to catch speeders coming down the hill, so when I saw the lights flashing behind me a few seconds later I figured a cop parked there had seen me make the illegal pass.
    The officer approached my car and asked if I knew why he pulled me over, and I said “you must have seen me pass that guy in a no-passing zone.”
    He then said “no, you passed ME!”…

    It was an unmarked police vehicle that I had passed without noticing.
    He was absolutely dumbfounded and the only explanation I could offer was that I was exhausted from a long work day and wanted to get home quickly.
    He ended up letting me off on a warning, and I assume it was because he was too distracted trying to understand how someone could be so stupid.

23. Speeding, 85 in a 40.

    At the time, I was like 23, had a 1976 Toyota Celica GT that I was restoring, and was on my way to a birthday party where I had a very good chance of hooking up with the birthday girl. Additionally, as part of the resto, I had been unable to drive her for a month because I had sent the steering box in for repairs and the shop fucked up badly (that’s its own long story). So suffice to say, I was feeling my oats. And that car loved to cruise at 80-90.

    So it’s like 9pm on a weekday, the stretch of road is basically empty, and I’m hauling. And then I see the cop on the side of the road, with his radar gun up. And then him putting it down. Well, I’m fucked.

    So I immediately pulled over, turned on my hazards, rolled down my window, and grabbed my license and documents. Took the cop a moment, I think he wasn’t prepared for someone going so fast so had his engine off. He walked up, hand on his gun, scowling hard. Didn’t say a word for a moment. I just looked up at him and said “I fucked up.”

    “Yeah, you did. License, registration, and proof of insurance.”

    I handed them over. He went back to his car and ran me. Nothing was going to come back, but I think he searched a bit to see if I was hiding something. When he came back, he was a little less stern, and asked me why I was driving like a maniac.

    I explained my above story, with a few more details about the steering box. Buy I ended that with “none of that is an excuse, it’s just the reason.” At that, the cop smiled. “Son, you just said the magic words. You admitted fault and didn’t try to excuse it. So instead of a misdemeanor ticket for careless driving that would cost you $1000 and get your license suspended for 6 months, I’m just gonna write you a fat speeding ticket for doing 58 in a 40. Do NOT let me catch you doing this again.”

    I apologized and thanked him, signed the ticket, drove away VERY slowly, went to the party, hooked up with the birthday girl (one time thing, no way would we have been good as partners), and went to court for the ticket. Plead guilty and paid $155.

24. Got off work (at the time I worked outdoor labor) on a 100°+ day. The a/c in my mustang was broken, so as I got onto the 55mph speed limit highway, I got up to about 80 with the windows down just to get air flowing through the car. Cop was sitting behind a barrier and I didn’t see him until way too late. Told him the truth about why I was speeding, and he gave me a fine and points.

25. Oh, I have a few…

    Pulled up to what I thought was a four-way-stop due to markings on the ground and the fact the Mustang to my left came to a complete stop. A CHP pulled up third. I went first, and CHP pulled me over and gave me a ticket for failure to yield since the Mustang didn’t actually have a stop.

    Came flying over a hill on US-95 and got caught by NHP which gave me a rural speed violation which was an $80 citation which I forgot about which turned into a +$300 bench warrant I paid for.

    Got pulled over on US-101 for “excessive speed and 14 illegal lane changes” during rush-hour; not sure how that happened.

26. I have two equally stupid stories.

    First. Going about 120 in my cousins Camaro down a country highway, came over a hill about 1/2 mile from a small town and saw a cop sitting on the side of the road right on the other side of the hill. Hit his lights before I even passed him. Decided I didn’t want to go to jail so I didn’t slow down until I got to town and then proceeded to drive through peoples lawns and in-between houses to lose him. Got on some back country roads for about 10 miles and then pulled back onto the highway. About 3 miles later saw a cop sitting on the highway waiting for me. He pulled out behind me but didn’t hit his lights and followed me all the way through the next town. As soon as I got through the town he hit his lights and pulled me over. It wasn’t the same cop but the other had radioed ahead. Cop told me if the other cop had pulled me over he would have thrown the book at me, instead, he said next time you go through town why don’t you go the speed limit and let me go. I have no idea why.

    Smoking the tires on the car as we was doing 360’s in the middle of main street (small town) and as we were coming around on one of the circles saw flashing lights about 50 feet away. Fortunately it was at night so there were no other cars nearby and got a warning and told to go home and if they saw us again that night would be going to jail.

27. while i was running basically open headers…pull into a parking lot, coming up to a T intersection between a couple of packed drive throughs, i roll through the stop sign in 2nd gear and stand on the gas through the ever-present puddle (and resulting slime) and hang it full throttle sideways for a good distance.

    officer was sitting behind the other restaurant to the left at the T as i did all that. also didn’t have a current insurance card on me at the time, i think i’d lost it when i’d gotten pulled over and hassled a couple weeks prior.

28. I’ve been pulled over once. I was driving over the pass behind a car going 20 mph under the limit (like 45 in a 65). It was night time, kinda damp out. I felt that was crazy slow for conditions so I was very frustrated and passed at my first safe (I thought) opportunity which was shortly before the centerline became double yellow again.

    Cop was the first car coming the other way and pulled me over shortly after for being reckless and passing on a double yellow. It wasn’t a double yellow when I started passing but meh. Roadside tested me (that was embarrassing) and let me off with a warning.

    I’ve since chilled out a lot on that road because you’re almost always going to be behind someone. But to this day, still, 20 under in summer, seriously?

29. Just north of Nacogdoches, TX on Hwy 259 there’s an Elementary School called Central Heights Elementary. 259 is a four lane highway, and some idiot, probably a Texan, decided to keep the elementary school there after upgrading the road and raising the speed limit. Granted, there is a school zone there and it drops to 35MPH for half a mile in each direction. It’s not a graduated drop, it just goes from 65 straight to 35 as you approach from the south.

    Anyway, not being from there, I was unaware of the school zone last March while driving through on a business trip. Apparently the signage was being upgraded. The smaller roadside School Zone signs had been taken down *before* the overhead signs with flashing amber lights were installed. And out of the dozens of cars speeding through there, I was the one pulled over and slapped with a $300 ticket for 24+ MPH School Zone Violation. With no signs. Had I lived anywhere near Nacogdoches, TX I’d have gone to fight it in court, although I’m sure the signs would have been up by then and I’d have needed to subpoena the construction company.

30. 135 in a 65 on a 500cc motorcycle leaps to mind.

31. I was 18 and driving between cities in Texas for the first time alone. It was about 4 hours. I was coached on the trip and my mom said it’s pretty much 65mph the whole way. I took that literally and blasted through a small town with a posted 35 without even taking notice. I explained this to the local cop who pulled my speeding ass over. I still remember him pinching his nose bridge before giving me a lesson on how speed limits work. Didn’t even give me a warning. Solid dude in hindsight.

32. Willingly drove into a speed trap and decided to just let my car cruise to slow down. Due to the nature of the trap I was going 85mph on a 40mph street. I figured it wasn’t a big deal since it was 2am and nobody else was on the road.

    Next thing I know I have red and blue lights shining in my mirrors. Luckily the cop was really cool and left me with a warning after I explained why I was going 45mph over the speed limit lol.

33. I was driving the speed limit and this cop was following me in the middle of town (we were on our way out of town to a Lowe’s). Ended up pulling me over for a cover on the license plate for the car I was driving (my dad’s truck registered in Virginia, which is legal there). I called him out on it and he tried to be pissy. I was in my hometown (small town), at the time, and my friend’s dad was the chief of police and I told I never heard of him. I asked for his name and never to pull that shit again

34. We were initially pulled over for an unspecified checkpoint along the notorious Flor-Ala line, but my husband ended up in zipties for not being able to keep his smart little trap shut, lol.

    The cop couldn’t have been older than 22, and was a ginger beanpole with a superiority complex; my husband, bless him, does not appreciate bossy authoritarianism, even when it is in his best interest to do so – so we were kind of doomed from the start, to be honest.

    Also, this ‘unspecified’ checkpoint – which is probably illegal to begin with – was at the tail end of a ten hour drive, after a full work shift for both of us, *and* it had just struck midnight, making it his birthday. So his bullshit meter was at the brim starting out, just for some context.

    This cop saunters up to the car and starts giving us shit. We’re no miscreants or anything, but we are clearly not from this fucking redneck riviera ghost town, and he’s enjoying watching us squirm.

    There’s a small drink cooler in the back, and he makes a big deal of getting us both out of the car, dragging out this comically small cooler, and pouring a Blenheim’s ginger ale out because “t’looks lahk bear, and y’all cain’t trainspart alkey-hall acrost state lines, now.”

    (He also chucks the empty bottle in the shrub, which I’m fairly sure is littering, and not the kind of image that the local PD would publicly support, but obviously I’m not going to be splitting any hairs at this point.)

    So the cop has pretty much proved that we’re at his mercy, here. He can do or say whatever he pleases, and there’s nothing we can do about it. He seems to be winding down on his little power trip; there’s obviously nothing illegal in the car, because he’s already dug around. I’m hoping we can just leave here soon. This is the exact time my lovely husband decided to pipe up and ask him ‘exactly how old he is, because he doesn’t appreciate being talked to this way.’ 🤦‍♀️

    This story ends positively, btw; I just realized it’s late. To wrap it up, he ends up leaning on the trunk in zipties, and I’m on the phone with his mother, who we are on the way to visit, attempting to explain the mess that we have found ourselves in, when this state trooper swoops in like some kind of fucked up guardian angel.

    Honestly, I never thought I’d write a sentence even closely resembling that, and I probably won’t get the opportunity again, but this man saved our ass. He knew this dumbass teenage cop and his psychological bent; and, *more importantly*, his family was from where we live, and where my family has long been from, and I guess I got to cash in on some of that good ol’ boy bullshit that I wasn’t even aware that I had.

    I’m equal parts horrified and grateful, because of course the reason that we were in that position to begin with *was because we didn’t belong*. So I guess that’s America, in a nutshell.

35. Looked at my phone while I was waiting for the light to turn green.