Re: Cop Stories!!

["Brian Haygood" <Scirious@hotmail.com>]

So one day, after a particularly monstrously bad day, I get in my Scirocco
hoping for at least a pleasant drive home.  It doesn't start.  Great.  I try
start to push it (up hill is the only choice), and some guy walks down the
street and helps me get it going.  Runs just fine, no warning lights,
headlights bright.  No problem.

So it's only about 2 miles to home.  What could go wrong?

About 1/4 mile from home I'm stopped on a hill waiting for a light to
change.  We are under a bridge that is under construction and is barely two
lanes wide.  I stall the thing.  Of course I'd like to say "it stalled", and
I didn't do anything different than usual, so there - "it stalled".
Wouldn't turn over; not one bit.  Hazard lights would click only with the
key removed.

Drivers behind me are honking and cursing at my dead horse, and I get out
and tell them I'm stalled and they will have to go around.  After a break in
traffic, they do.   Now is my chance.  No one behind me - I'll let it roll
backwards down the hill and pop the clutch!  No problem, right?  right?

Well that didn't work either.  About this time I see the cops blocking the
intersection in front of me and driving down to meet me.

First thing the cop say - "Huh.  Expired registration too."   Doh!
So I 'splain that I thought I had finally gotten the thing running, but
aparently that wasn't so.  Then I explain that "it's probably still
registered under the last owner."   Boy, that went over well.

So I end up with a ticket for not having a registered vehicle.  No ticket
for lack of inspection or registration stickers (I had insurance!), and they
tow my baby away.  Telling them I had just moved up from Texas might have
helped me seem more worthy of pity than punishment about the whole thing.
Now I am left to track down the previous owner and get that title notarized
(Texans don't Notarize much of anything, but apparently Pittsburghers do),
which was the reason I hadn't registered it in the first place.  I did get a
lecture on how to transfer a title - which is a lot easier than AAA said it
was (A LOT easier).

Add that up to $144 ticket, $65 towing, $15 per day storage.

And that's just the past hour!  Yep, it just happened.  Nice cops, but a
heck of a situation I got myself into.  I found the PO's number, and I know
where he works and lives, so hopefully I can get him out to the impound lot
soon - then on to the notary.  Anyway, now I don't know what to do once I
get the thing out of impound.  The thing probably won't drive any better
than it did today, and the cops have removed my license plate, so I don't
know how to get it home.  Don't have a trailer to tow it.  Don't have a
place I can leave an unregistered car with no plates, either, except my
garage if it will make it there.

Kinda puts things in perspective, though.  Just two hours ago I thought that
failing my midterm exam was the worst thing that could happen to me today!

Now I'm about five breaths away from putting "Scirocco for sale" in my .sig
Maybe I should have told them I was Canadian, Eh?

Sincerely;
Brian Haygood sadly sans Scirocco

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