Feb 17 2005
Friendly Police
I’ve been pulled over by the police so many times now on my Gixxer that I think its becoming a habit rather than just randomness, so now I always carry my license and insurance documents with me.
The other night (Tuesday I think) I was riding home from somewhere and got stuck behind a car that was driving at about 25mph (on a 35mph road). Thinking it was an old couple I stayed behind rather than blasting past them and frightening them. To cut a long story short I waited until a nice wide clear section of road before overtaking.
After overtaking I continued at about 40mph (to catch up on lost ground) only to notice that the car had sped up and was keeping pace with me. This continued for about a mile until we reached a 25mph zone.
Unfortunately for me my primary fuel ran out at that point so I had to switch over to reserve. My bike doesn’t like making the switch so I have to rev it up a bit to keep it running smooth. At was at this point in time that the old coggers behind me decided to switch their nice blue flashey lights on. Doh!
It seems that the only folks that were driving at 25mph were infact police. So I pulled over (as soon as it was safe to do so) and prepared for the biggest bollocking since I got done for doing 67 in a 35 zone. To my delight the policeman that got out of the car was none other than [hidden identity] with whom I used to go to school with. I immediately did the whole “a’right mate! Haven’t seen you in years” thing and “I see you’re still in the police” thing, I quickly pulled out my license and insurance to prove that I wanted to be a compliant as possible with the police.
It appears that it worked. I just gave me a ticking of in the way that “old friends who haven’t seen each other in years but one of them is a police office and has to tell the other one off” do, and I was on my way again.
Of this whole episode that most bizarre thing wasn’t that I got stopped (thats all too common for me), it wasn’t that it was an old school friend that stopped me, no, it was the car. It was a Honda Stream people carrier type thing. Not the sor tof car that you’d expect to be use as an unmarked police car.
Was it a grey Honda with no visable markings or police equipment by any chance? If so I have seen that a few times going in the other direction with its hidden lights on.
Yes it was. I normally look out for a box on the dashboard or a second mirror before overtaking cars, but this one really look like an old couple driving along at well below the speed limit.