Meanwhile, it was raining when I was driving home so hard to see already and Mom started fiddling with the center console and kept knocking her purse down into my leg space while I was driving. She won't put it on the floor near her feet or hold it on her lap. It kept repeatedly falling and getting in the way of my foot so I kept having to pick it back up and it was really aggravating. I finally tossed it in the back seat and a few minutes later while going with the flow of traffic, I slowed down when I saw the speed reduced to 50mph. I always make sure to be at or below the posted speed limit before passing the sign. Other vehicles were going faster than me and a cop pulled up behind me with lights. Nowhere to pull over and I didn't realize he was trying to pull me over (although, sometimes the cops here will fish for whoever pulls over). So I finally got to an area where I could pull over and made sure to pull on to the grass enough that the cop would be fully off the road when he approached. I said "Hi" and asked what was wrong and he claimed I was going 64 in a 50. I said that I just slowed down for the 50mph sign that came up. He asked for my license. I handed it over. He said he didn't need insurance or registration because the system now lets them pull that info up. Mom wasn't listening so she went through the glove box and reorganized things-- which means I'm going to have a hard time finding stuff later. She always messes it up.
Cop got back and thanked me for leaving him plenty of room to be off the road, commented that I did have my seatbelt on but that the ticket for going 14mph over was over $200 and would reflect as a ding on insurance. He said no seatbelt wouldn't do that and would be under $100. He showed me the address and url on the ticket and had me sign. I asked him where the 50mph zone started bc I hadn't seen it. He explained it was back near some store. Mom was convinced he was lying bc we have had cops lie to us about street signs, but I think it's possible I missed it bc she kept distracting me with her stupid purse. I didn't say that to her though. Just kept my trap shut. Cop had no bodycam I noticed. And this is a town where you can't contest tickets. They have no courthouse and there is no way to actually contest the tickets written there. Same town wrote my brother a ticket for rolling through a stop sign when there was no stop sign there. Not even a red light. Just a flashing yellow caution light. But he couldn't contest it as there was nowhere to contest it. All you can do is pay whatever fine they have. Most of the state it's $50 for no seatbelt. But in this town it's $184.
I saw a bunch of people being pulled over so it must be ticket quota time. I don't know if they do this in other places, but here the cops have ticket quotas and get in trouble if they don't write x number of tickets by x date. So there is always a rush toward the end of the period where they straight up make stuff up.
I will say that the cop was polite and chill and didn't act accusatory or condescending. When we got into our own town I was making sure to watch the signs very carefully and saw blue lights behind me again. I made a right turn to pull out of the main road but they were going after someone else. I was about to be really angry if they were going to pull me over for nothing. LOL.
Could have been worse. Nobody was hurt and the fine won't kill me. Mom's purse will stay in the back from now on.
Aaaand, I stayed up all night again without meaning to. LOL.
More Careful Next Month...?!?
