Scuba Shop Break In and Robbery (Read Below)

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As for my car search story... It might be one of those things where you had to be there to appreciate it, but here goes...

I was in high school, I think it was my senior year, and I had just gotten a 1988 chevy s-10 blazer.( I loved that truck;-0 ) I was in the slow process of putting a rather large stereo into it, and so the dash and interior panelling were not screwed down, they were just hanging there halfway until I was finished. I had a friend with me, it was a friday night, and I was headed into town when I got pulled over by the local PD. The dialog was something as follows.

Me: "Hello Officer, what's the problem?"

Officer: "I noticed that your license plate light is out. Can I see
your license and registration please?"

Me: "Here ya go."

Officer: "Mr. Woodruff have you been drinking or using any illegal substances today, or do you have any in the vehicle with you?"

Me: "No sir, I haven't.."

Officer: "I see those panels and the dash look like they've been removed recently, you're not trying to hide anything back there are you?"

Me: "Well... yes sir I am." (somewhat of a smart assed statement)

Officer: "Would you and your friend mind stepping out of the vehicle please sir??"


So we walk around to the back of the truck.

Officer: "So before I find out for myself, would you like to explain what you're hiding back there??"

Me: "Well... speakers mostly...."
Me: "Oh and some wires too" (I know I know, I was a stupid little smart ass)

Officer: "Well would you mind letting me take a look in your vehicle??"

Me: "No, go ahead.."

Officer: Would you and your friend please wait right here for me, and don't move OK??"

(I know you're not going to believe this next part but I swear to God it happened..)
Me: OK

Officer: (Rummages through the back seat first, then looks shocked, and starts walking back to us with something in his hand) "And what is this??"

I almost fainted.. My girlfriend has a pet rabbit, and we feed it alfalfa grass as a treat because it loves the stuff. Well, when you buy it from the store it comes in a ceran wrap wrapper, and once you open it, you can't close the bag back up. So to keep it from drying out and stuff, we open the package and put the grass in a zipplock baggie, which of course he had in his hand a small zipplock bag stuffed to the brim with a green leafy substance. After I regained myself, and then once I stopped laughing I told him what it was, and he smelled it and agreed that it wasn't what it looked like, he let us go... although I did get a warning from him to remove a knife that was in the backseat.:D :eek: :D
 
Poseidon once bubbled...

BTW, I didn't put the tint on there, it was on the car when I bought it, and I refuse to pay $100 to have it removed and put 30% back on...)

Poseidon once bubbled...

Either way, I got a ticket, paid it a week later, end of story.

So which woulda cost more? The $100 bucks to make it legal, or the ticket cuz it wasnt?
 
Same price.. But you make it sound like I knew it was too dark and just didn't want to pay to get it replaced. I had no idea it was too dark until after I was ticketed. Now that I'm in college, I can't afford it.. :huh:
 
Poseidon once bubbled...
As for my car search story...
Sounds like a reasonable, normal consent-to-search stop to me, it's just you were on the wrong end of it. :) And you didn't get a ticket or taken in for simulated controlled substance, even after the smart ass remarks. I've seen a lot of people talk themselves into going to jail. As for not knowing the tint was too dark, that's reasonable and common; but you are still responsible for the vehicle. Check for that stuff in the future.

BTW, a traffic stop is the most dangerous thing to do, you never know who the h-ll you're pulling over.
 
lal7176 Sorry to hear about your friend.. that is just wrong. I hope the judicial system doesn't let this person win the lawsuit.

sealskin98, there is a simulated substance law?? That is crazy. Surely it's only enforced when a person is caught trying to sell it and is claiming it is a controlled substance though right?!?

Keep in mind that story was told because it makes me laugh. I wasn't mad at the time, nor have I ever been. It's just one of those little things in life that makes you laugh...:wink:
 
simulated controlled substance, it looked like marijuana, but you get the idea.

Unless they've changed it lately ( I've been on hiatus for a couple of years) if you have material that looks like, say crack, and it is packaged like it usually is, in small baggies, but it is counterfeit, you can still be charged. I haven't looked up the statute in a few years, gettin' rusty. I need to carefully brush up on updates and stuff after I finish my degree and get back to work. You'd think after 18 years in the business you'd not forget things so quickly. Oh well, don't use it you lose it. :bonk:
 
I'd have to say that most of the cops in our area are extremely understanding about things (i.e. driving up on three of us laying in the middle of the road howling at the moon and "escorting" us back to my friend's house - the kind of things you do when you are 18 and have a couple of bottle of Jack on hand.) I've only had one bad experience with the cops, and it involved a rather overzealous rookie.

Thread car search story #2 - Been about 6-7 years ago, I was driving along, exited one highway for another and got that "I just had to suck fumes, I'm going to quit soon" bump from my car, so I U-turned and got back up on the highway that I had been on where it was a short hop to a gas station. I came out of the gas station to find two county mounties blocking my car, one in front, one in back. I wandered over and asked what was up. The rookie, rather excitedly, said that they had been chasing me for nearly 10 miles and that I had been clocked doing 100+. I told him that it couldn't have been me (and it wasn't) and suggested that he might have the wrong person (polietly.) This sent him into a bit of a fit during which he asked if he could search my car. I said sure, and he proceeded to tear my car apart (I pretty much lived in the car at that point, so it was pretty junked up.) He made several comments about how it would be easier for him to search my car if I would clean it more often. :confused: He finally figured out that I wasn't carrying anything and started in on me again, this time the veteran cop said that he had seen me cross over the overpass at a high rate of speed. At this point I explained that I had exited before getting to that overpass and after realizing that I was about to run out of gas had gotten back on the other side of that overpass. I even pointed out where there was fresh mud on my car from doing the u-turn in a place that is notorious for holding water for days after the last rain, and it had been days since the last rain. The rookie then got in my face, screaming at me that I was a liar and that he was going to make sure that my life was a living hell. During his little screaming fit, the veteran cop got a call on his radio (they had already finished checking me out, so I figure it was a call saying that they had either sighted the real speedster or that another jurisdiction had caught him) and he started to back toward his cruiser calling for the rookie to leave me alone and get in his car. The rookie wasn't finished yet, he turned to me and yelled (standing toe to toe) that he was going to sleep well that night knowing that I was a f*ing liar. At this point I had had about enough of what was going on and I yelled right back that he was basically one crazy SOB and that he needed to calm down. He huffed off, chatted with the veteran, and they both hopped in their crusiers and took off at a high rate of speed.

That's about the only time that I have even been treated badly by any of the local guys.
 
chrispete once bubbled...
That's about the only time that I have even been treated badly by any of the local guys.

Remind me I fill you in on some of mine and TxDeepDiver's stories sometime...
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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