Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Policed!

As I mentioned I got ticketed back around Thanksgiving. I was driving on 35W and I didn't pull over a lane while a police car was on the shoulder. He pulled me over and then yelled at me for a few minutes. I didn't talk back to him at all. In fact, when he came up to the car I wasn't sure what I'd done. The shoulders on 35W are fairly wide and I judged that there was plenty of distance between me and the parked car. What I've learned is that I'm not allowed to make that judgment call.
I told the FP Gal later that day. I was ashamed for having done something wrong, especially in front of the kids. We looked at the ticket and it didn't have a fee on it. So I called into the system and asked how much it would be. We then wrote out a check and sent it in.
On the ticket it says that paying money is the same as a guilty plea. And I'll go ahead and plead guilty here. I should have moved over. I think that the law could maybe have a bit more elasticity but that probably wouldn't work. So be it. I did the crime and now I was ready to pay my fine.
Only the check came back to us along with a note saying that we would receive a court summons. A court summons. Apparently there was endangerment so there has to be a court appearance. And when do we get said summons? This is the frustrating part. No one knows. It depends on when they 'get to it' or something like that. And if the summons gets lost in the mail or misdelivered? Well, then I'll have a warrant out for me.
Gah!
They did helpfully tell me that if I haven't seen anything in another month I should call again.
Double gah!!

I just want to put this all behind me; pay my fine and be done with it. I've already had my lecture and believe me, I have learned my lesson. Please let me go!

4 comments:

Chris said...

Wow. That's awful. Hope they don't end up sending the Mpls SWAT team to your house.

DD4 said...

This is nuts!

Pat said...

Geez--what a big deal this is turning out to be. Seems like nothing can be simple. I can see where people would make that mistake about not moving over if there is plenty of room on the shoulder. Glad I know about that. I will learn from your mistake. Good luck.

carrster said...

oh Lordy - why give you the ticket & offer you the amount on the phone if they're going to deny it anyway? Ugh. Geez louise. Sorry about this, Peder. This is lame.