All I can say to that is... OUCH!
Reminds me of the other day when I was going to work. Traffic on the freeway
was jammed-up except the HOV (carpool) lane which was wide open (where's
that mannequin when you need it!) This motorcycle cop just stood next to his
bike and pointed people over to the side of the road to ticket them if they
succumbed to temptation & jumped into the carpool lane. He didn't even have
to move and cha-ching the State's coffers grew! How about gettin' on your
bike and clearing up the traffic mess????
"You can observe a lot by just watching." - Yogi Berra
Steve Conley
Marysville, WA USA
'76 MGB Roadster
GHN5UG393585G
mailto:swconley@foxinternet.net
MGB Online = http://web3.foxinternet.net/swconley
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-mgs@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-mgs@autox.team.net]On
Behalf Of Neil Cotty
Sent: Thursday, September 09, 1999 9:01 PM
To: mgs@autox.team.net
Subject: Trying to keep calm.. way OT, a rhetorical rant even.
I think I had the worst experience last night.
I got pulled over for speeding in my 626. Ok I was speeding yep. No excuse,
but suffice to say was on a dual lane freeway at the time, and they were
pulling in queues of cars and there was cars in front of me as well. A
cynical revenue collecting attempt in it's purest form. Said they clocked me
doing 20kph over (100 in 80 zone) which amazed me and god knows how their
radar can pick me out of a line of cars - but anyway.
I just sold my old ISP business this week, so have been just a *little*
snowed under moving a 1000 clients or so. Of course, when I get pulled over,
this other female officer goes over to check my rego sticker, and lets out
this BIG smirk..
Oh Sh*t. I think I'm out of rego. 8 days..
So here's the tally.
$185 Speeding fine.
$403 Driving whilst unregistered
$403 Driving with no insurance (even though my insurance, both property and
third party personal was paid, just had no time to bring the silly rego form
into the RTA)
Total: $996.00
Of course, I wasn't allowed to ask ANY questions, and when I did (Isn't
there a grace period officer? was the question), this guy immediately told
me he was going to take my Plates off and tow my car away!! Totally
flabbergasted I sat there for a while in shock. Then about five of minutes
later he came back and said in a totally different attitude that I could
move my car off the freeway, park it, then get it towed. ie "Drive it home,
just don't let us see you do it". I sat there a further five minutes
considering this and another different Copper came up and told me the same
thing except in a much nicer tone, suffice to say I was looking over my
shoulder all the way home.
Now I don't know about you people out there, but what the heck happened to
your local cop, who would say - "Look mate, do you realise your rego is
expired?, better fix it up". Instead, I have to come up with a GRAND which
is a 'little' difficult to stomach. Obviously thats the letter of the law,
I'm screwed whatever, but a piece of paperwork is late and I get treated
like a criminal. I register 4 cars here, and pay $1000's in rego, tax and
insurance and always on time, except of course, this time. To me this is a
total joke. Obviously I will try to not pay this $806.00 as I am an *expert*
when it comes to cashflow, and pleading poverty, so I will make them wait
and wait and wait to get this money, or they'll get it $20 a week. It sucks,
thats what I think. I rarely get angry, but last night after I drove away
from these five nice Policeman boy oh boy, I made the Tazzie Devil look
calm. <G>
Seriously considering moving to Germany. I hear the Autobahns are REAL nice.
;) Can you get cheap MG's there?
Trying to keep my sense of humour. :)
Cheers,
Neil.
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