i hate rent-a-cops
so tuesday i went to the office where i can pick up my tags, told my boss i'd be late, etc... and.... they weren't open. why? because the expired tag gods hate me.
so fine. whatever. i'll do it saturday.
so all week this week i've been driving with expired tags, but i've been doing the speed limit, etc.. making sure not to do anything that would get me pulled over. today, coming onto post, some reject front guard rent-a-cop guy decides to be a #$%& and wont let me on post b/c my tags are expired. (even though i've been let on post EVERYDAY THIS WEEK). so i pull into the parking lot and 3 more rent-a-cops come and its a rent-a-cop field day, because they live for this kind of sh*t, and ooooh, lookie, we get to be all important and feel powerful and manly. boogie for them.
so i explain to them that i live in KC MO but i work in KS (45 minute drive) and that i've been outta town but here are all my papers (i hand them over)...i'm like i already got the inspection and the fuel emissions test and everything done, its just a matter of going and picking them up. so the one cool rent-a-cop is like ok. blah blah.... and i'm thinkin' sweet. no big deal....
two minutes later (or 10. i have no concept of time, but i do know this whole ordeal took A HALF HOUR. lame) some other rent-a-cop pulls up behind me (behind me in the parking lot, like RIGHT UP on my car's ass... because i'm going to throw my car into reverse and try to escape? oy.) and, apparently, he's the rent-a-cop leader. oooh. look out.
so he sits in his car, and goes thru my papers for a good 10 minutes, though what takes 10 minutes to look thru 4 pieces of paper, i dont know.... so i'm sitting in my car and i'm just like hello?? job? i have a job i'd like to get to? so he strolls up to my car, and says
"ma'am. would you like to explain to me what happened with your tags"
???? is he serious? what happened to them? nothing happened to them? i'm like uhhhhh??? okayyyy.. ???
"uhh. sure..i dont have them?"
"and why not"
oh stop talking to me like you're my father and i'm 6 years old and i just broke a glass in the living room. i hate when "authority figures" (puh-leese) talk down to me just because i look like i'm 17... ugh. annoying....
"well, i'm getting them on saturday"
"well, ma'am, they've been expired for an entire month"
no they havent. today is the 6th, you friggin moron, which means, ok, lets do some math here, that theyve been expired for...........SIX DAYS.
"uh-huh. okay"
"well, why haven't you gotten them yet"
why does it MAT-TER. i hate you i hate you i hate you
"well, sir, i've been out of town and have been busy, and the one day i tried to get them, the office was closed, so..... ya know... i've been busy"
"well, you've had an entire month to do this"
no i haven't. get off the month thing. you are a huge ape of a reject. go away.
"uh-huh. right...." what the hell else am i supposed to say? its all i can do not to go off on this rent-a-cop-oh-i'm-so-important-look-at-me-i-have-so-much-power loser.
so he walks back to his car, says something i'm sure is just oh-so-clever to the other rent-a-cops (because, ya know, me and my honda civic, we might try and bust outta there all stealth like, so ya better get 4 or 5 more rent-a-cops to surround my car. ohmygodlame.) and they all have a good chuckle, glancing back at me in my car, and Lardo the rent-a-cop gets back in his car and, but of course, writes me a ticket.
for $75.00.
i hate today. i hate rent-a-cops and i hate expired tags.
today's run is going to be good.
Comments
DATE: 4:57 PM
Jerks. Here as long as you've been through inspection you get another week to actually go and get your tags. But I bet your made their day since they have little else to live for!
Posted by: Rae | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 11:53 AM
I can't go into how I feel about this in public...I bought my first car 4 years ago. 2 years later, the registration expired, and I never got a new sticker. Since it was my first car I didn't really know what to expect. I knew my dad in Canada had them mailed to him every year. (I'd forgotten that I'd moved since buying the car.)Anyway, my registration expired on 11/25 and 11/26 was Thanksgiving. I drove in to the city on Thanksgiving morning to play football. After spending forever to find a nice legal spot, I parked my car. Not that it mattered. Still got a ticket for an expired registration. Less than 24 hours after it expired. In a legal spot. On Thanksgiving!! Don't the cops have anything better to do? (like Serving and Protecting, blah blah blah...)Anyway, sorry for the long post, but I got my new registration sticker the next day. I went to court to fight the ticket, and maybe because it was the first time, I got it reduced by half. From $60 to $30. In retrospect, it wasn't worth the two hours waiting in "traffic court".Like I said, I can't start getting into how I feel about this stuff...;-)
Posted by: Danny | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 10:26 AM
JERKS! Haven't they ever heard of a warning???
Posted by: Flatman | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 11:26 AM
You should of jumped out of your car ala Chris Farley in "Tommy Boy" and done the bee routine.....works everytime, the cops think you are crazy.Although running would be a good idea too, if your car wasn't there. Don't tell anyone, but about 3 months I did out run a rent-a-cop during some late-night shenanigans (where was I suppose to pee with no bathrooms around?), but that's a different story for a different time, does that make me a fugitive?
Posted by: Djgoldnboy | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 9:54 AM
viper. you know i have no control over head-swivels. they just happen!!!
Posted by: a.maria | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 10:15 AM
Tuesday? Must have been closed for Rosh Hashana! Do they celebrate that out there?You can sometimes fight a ticket of this type along with showing that you've corrected the deficiency and get either a reduced penalty or have it excused. Might be worth a try.
Posted by: Scooter | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 8:10 AM
Ugh. What a nightmare! Did you tell them you are a RUNNER and that you are training for a marathon?! ha.
Posted by: Stephanie | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 9:13 AM
OK, a.maria, yet another simply hilarious post. I can picture you sitting there chewing on your Latin attitude while Barney and Company have their way with your obviously felonous situation.Did you pull out the "oh no you di-unt" hand gestures and head movements?
Posted by: Viper | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 9:29 AM
You should've taken off running. Most of the big-bellied rent-a-cops that I've seen couldn't run a quarter mile if they had to.
Posted by: bitweever | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 5:35 PM
OMG! Sorry this happened to you, but hell...ya got a good story out of it, didn't ya? And I love the last comment, "Today's run is going to be good". Way to turn it back to the positive.I just noticed we are both training for TNT marathons... both doing "our first". Good luck out there!
Posted by: Tammy | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 1:17 PM
Not sure how it works where you live, but here in Houston, if you get the situation rectified within 60 days of the expiration, they will dismiss the ticket & only charge you a $10 dismissal fee. Of course, you have to show up to traffic court, but the whole thing took only about 20 minutes.Unfortunately in my case, my tags had been expired for 10 months, so I had to pay the $100 fine. I could've had it reduced to $80, but that would've meant waiting all day for my name to be called in the docket & I just didn't think it was worth it. But in your case, I say it's definitely worth a shot. Good luck! :)
Posted by: Erin | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 8:54 AM
My "expired" instance happened one night when I got pulled over for suspicion of DUI. I had crossed a white line on the side of the road, and I got pulled over. What the cops see when they come up to the car is me with my eyes watering and red, and they immediately figure it's drugs or alcohol.I told them that I hadn't been drinking or doing drugs, and the slight loss of control and red, watery eyes had an explanation. But they preferred their method. Field Sobriety Test time. Hand to nose, walk a straight line, count up, count down, backwards alphabet. The whole nine yards. All passed. That's because I wasn't drunk, I was having an allergic reaction to something in the air.After going through that whole thing with Mr. Lead Cop, Mr. Backup Rookie comes up and starts getting uppity about an expired city sticker. Luckily, the experienced guy figured that the 30 minute stop for suspicion of DUI warranted a verbal warning on the expired sticker.
Posted by: Tom | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 6:15 AM
Maybe we should all stock our cars with coffee and doughnuts just in case....ok that wasn't nice. Sorry about your ticket. I hate getting pulled over. The flashing lights, the rubberneckers, the full of himself (herself) cop trying to make us civilians feel inferior...
Posted by: DGC | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 7:48 AM
I had a similar experience a few years back. The stop took 45 minutes with 3 of my kids in the car. The cop made me come and sit in his car while he sat and picked his nose and made disparaging remarks about how I need to pay my taxes-my car was running on the interstate and my 3 year old escaped his car seat and was crawling around in the car-still the moron wouldn't let me go back to my car- all this for expired tabs and my licsense plate was taped inside my back window. I appealed and didn't have to pay the fine-but I still cringe whenever I see a cop in my city. Sorry you had to go through that.
Posted by: tri-mama | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 7:29 PM
aholes! all of them, aholes! $75?????
Posted by: partyrunner | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 4:00 AM
He-he, I love the way your write! Sorry you got the ticket though, these dudes must have had too much cream in the coffee or something. I would definetely need to hit the trail for an hour or two or three after a day like this!
Posted by: Jack | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 6:49 PM
OH I hate that too. I got a ticket for crossing the double yellow lines while passing - but there was like an old lady driving a semi or something in front of me and no one from here to the next state coming in the other direction - $118 !!!!!!!!! I KNOW it's was crossing the double yellow and all, but hello! WARNING!??? But hey, at least your run will probably break the speed limit - careful you don't get ANOTHER ticket ;)
Posted by: Wil | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM
DATE: 5:58 PM
he must have felt sooo important today. i can just hear him now.. "yeah fellas... you should have seen that civic, she was ready to bust right out of there. but i stopped her. can't get by me." (add barney fife gestures at random). sorry this had to happen. i'd be tempted to fight it but then like someone else said, it probably isn't worth your time in court over it. what a bummer to start your day with.
Posted by: mipper | July 4, 2006 08:03 PM