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I have seen others post here regarding traffic tickets, so I assume its ok
Aug 9th I was in the Rolesville NC Food lion parking lot with our 26ft Sailboat. I parked in the rear cause the boat is huge...however some jerk pulled in front of me while I was in the store in a way that forced me to leave the parking lot by going over those huge speed bumps in the front of the store. I say jerk because with all the closer parking spots he decides to put his truck in a way that forced me not to be able to make the turn out that I set the rig up for when I parked it...a ton of other spaces were available closer to the store...but anyway
The boat is so long that the trailer ended up getting "hung" on the bump...goosed it and she lurched free, but some of my standing rigging came loose and was dangling... At this point I must point out that the Rolesville Officer in a marked patrol vehicle was behind me and saw the whole thing.
I pulled over still in the Parking lot to re-secure the lines that had fallen from topside and were dragging the on the ground. The Officer motors past me, and I wave, he nods at me.
Said officer went to the stop light, turned right on 401 north and disappears.
I secure my rigging and go to the stop light, continuing straight on Rogers road towards Falls Lake...As I leave i see the officer now "hiding" in a grove of trees just to the right of the light. I think nothing of it as Rolesville is famous for speed traps on main street.
I am just getting to the point down Rogers road toward heritage lane where the road narrows and becomes two lanes only when I see in my rear view mirror a police car with full lights and sirens dodging around other cars, forcing them to pull over, as if he was racing to an emergency... imagine my surprise when after all his richard petty racing maneuvers he settles in behind me and is indeed pulling me over. And as he gets closer I realize is the same one was behind me in the parking lot a minute ago.
Remember, I am pulling a LARGE 26ft sailboat, and am driving a conversion van...and now I am on a narrow country road with no real safe place to pull over with something this large...and I see him in the mirrors indicating I better pull over quick... I do so as best i can...but I am now a road hazard due to my size...traffic must slow and wait to get around me.
As he is walking up, ANOTHER Rolesville Police car comes barreling down the road at full speed and lights and pulls behind the first...this officer gets out and runs up the passenger side with his gun "partway" out, but still in holster...thoroughly scaring the ship outta my wife when he pops up at her open window (yeah she screamed, didn't see him)
The first officer proceeds to tell me that IN THE FOOD LION PARKING LOT 5 min earlier he noticed the lights on my trailer were not working.. This is why he pulled me over he says.
Officer #1 Takes my paperwork, tells me to stay in vehicle..comes back with a ticket for no trailer lights.. I advise him that my lights were indeed working when I did my pre-trip inspection no less than 20 min ago(I am religious about this) and possibly something came loose or was damaged when i was forced over the speed hump in the parking lot...remember he was behind me in the parking lot.
He gives me this huge lecture about it's a safety hazard, I could cause an accident, etc. I said again maybe something came loose, I can check real quick, but was advised again by officer to stay in vehicle as the location was not safe and I was impeding the flow of traffic etc. (hello, you pulled me over here) And he already had my ticket all nicely printed out.
BTW the other officer had realized by now there were no drugs, no crimes, no fun for him , so he bailed early.
So I am kinda pissed off about this whole thing and here is why.
#1 I know my trailer lights were working prior to the speed hump, and at the time I had no reason to suspect they may not have. After I got my ticket and went home (I live REALLY close to the food lion) I checked and found simply that the plug had pulled loose when I dragged over the speed hump just enough to not make a connection with the ground, but otherwise were in fine working order...had he let me out to check i could've demonstrated it and rather quickly...however where he pulled me over was to dangerous, he said so himself. So I sat there and just received a ticket because he wouldn't let me out.
#2 The officer that pulled me over and issued the ticket was the SAME officer that was behind me in the parking lot, and when he pulled me over TOLD me he noticed the lack of trailer lights back in the parking lot. He witnessed my trouble with the speed hump, and that I had no lights THEN.
#3 he apparently turned north on 401, pulled over and hid in those trees, and waited for me to finish checking my lines, waited until I got on Rogers Road, and then performed high speed maneuvers to "take me down" since I was such a "hazard"
My ticket is only $288....so I am NOT going to call a lawyer who will want to charge me $500 to 'make it go away"
My QUESTION for the peanut gallery is how do you feel about how this went down? I feel that since the officer SAW the problem before I got on a public road he had a civil duty to advise me there was a problem with my lights while I was still in the parking lot
Instead he waited to ambush me down the road.. If it was such a safety hazard isn't he responsible to try and prevent it if he is able? and he was...he drove right past me as I was checking the boat...window was like 10 ft from me, and he said nothing.
I think this was a really crappy ambush move to simply try and collect revenue.. I plan to fight it when I go to court on those grounds that he intentionally let me go with an obvious "safety hazard" that he had already witnessed, and rather than mention it to me in a parking lot went and hid, so that he could pop me on the public road. I can only assume he has no jurisdiction in a parking lot?
I think that it was very predatory how he went about it. As a taxpayer I don't appreciate a law enforcement officer purposely ignoring his duty to protect, remember its a "safety issue" not a crime, so that he can instead prey on me.
If he hadn't been behind me, and if he hadn't told me that he did indeed see it in the parking lot would be different I understand... but he did see it.. And then created another safety hazard by pulling my rig over on the narrow lane, not to mention all the folks in the cars behind me he scared the crap out of with his "high speed pursuit"...
Sounds like a pretty typical small town cop to me.
Not sure if it will cause your insurance to go up anyway, but still might be worth talking to a lawyer as they are usually way less than $500. Often only 50-75 more than the ticket.
Sounds like a pretty typical small town cop to me.
Not sure if it will cause your insurance to go up anyway, but still might be worth talking to a lawyer as they are usually way less than $500. Often only 50-75 more than the ticket.
No insurance raising...its not a "moving violation" requiring insurance to be notified
I am pretty sure I should be able to get it dropped simply on the cop was a douche-bag factor...
I know most of the Rolesville po-po....this guy is fairly new...and apparently a jerk.
I still feel he had a duty to mention it since he was right there at the time it happened
I would be glad that all that happened was a ticket. You could have had a car plow into the back of your boat because they didn't know you were stopping.
I would be glad that all that happened was a ticket. You could have had a car plow into the back of your boat because they didn't know you were stopping.
All the more reason I feel he had an obligation to say something BEFORE I got on the road
My QUESTION for the peanut gallery is how do you feel about how this went down? I feel that since the officer SAW the problem before I got on a public road he had a civil duty to advise me there was a problem with my lights while I was still in the parking lot
Since you asked for the peanut gallery, I'll chime in. ;-)
I think it sounds like you are pissed about how it all went down. Maybe rightfully so, but at the end of the day, he got you, and that's that. Small town or not, it doesn't matter what WE think.
I think if you fight it hard, it won't go away. Maybe try getting more bee's with honey than vinegar, or wahtever that saying is.
I also think that if your side of the story is accurate (no reason to doubt you, but we only had your side), then I'd be careful about making matters worse. You live close by, it's a small town, and he will remember you.
If it were me:
I'd forget about how I FEEL about it. I'd swallow my pride, then I'd get documentation that the lights work, present it to the court, and ask them to either reduce or dismiss. I'm pretty sure that "failure of equipment" is fairly cheap, and carries no points.
Since you asked for the peanut gallery, I'll chime in. ;-)
I think it sounds like you are pissed about how it all went down. Maybe rightfully so, but at the end of the day, he got you, and that's that. Small town or not, it doesn't matter what WE think.
I think if you fight it hard, it won't go away. Maybe try getting more bee's with honey than vinegar, or wahtever that saying is.
I also think that if your side of the story is accurate (no reason to doubt you, but we only had your side), then I'd be careful about making matters worse. You live close by, it's a small town, and he will remember you.
If it were me:
I'd forget about how I FEEL about it. I'd swallow my pride, then I'd get documentation that the lights work, present it to the court, and ask them to either reduce or dismiss. I'm pretty sure that "failure of equipment" is fairly cheap, and carries no points.
That's my 2-cents.
This
Go to court, boil the explanation down to the connector and the speed bump, hopefully resulting in a small or no fees / fines, and BYE.
Since you asked for the peanut gallery, I'll chime in. ;-)
I think it sounds like you are pissed about how it all went down. Maybe rightfully so, but at the end of the day, he got you, and that's that. Small town or not, it doesn't matter what WE think.
I think if you fight it hard, it won't go away. Maybe try getting more bee's with honey than vinegar, or wahtever that saying is.
I also think that if your side of the story is accurate (no reason to doubt you, but we only had your side), then I'd be careful about making matters worse. You live close by, it's a small town, and he will remember you.
If it were me:
I'd forget about how I FEEL about it. I'd swallow my pride, then I'd get documentation that the lights work, present it to the court, and ask them to either reduce or dismiss. I'm pretty sure that "failure of equipment" is fairly cheap, and carries no points.
That's my 2-cents.
I appreciate that
It's not so much about my "feelings" in this case though.
I just thought it was wrong that he could lecture me on safety when he ignored a chance to do it before it was a safety issue... otherwise I wouldn't even be posting this question. Also if I had been somewhere less busy I could've fixed the problem in less than 1 sec...but he wouldn't allow me out of the vehicle to even check.
i thought that was their job, to protect...and since he ignored his duty of public safety in order to collect revenue its just wrong.
Go to court, boil the explanation down to the connector and the speed bump, hopefully resulting in a small or no fees / fines, and BYE.
Is my plan...and to let the DA know that the officer witnessed the incident with the speed bump...it made a hella noise as she scraped across...
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