I was putting along on my way to work just pulling out of the community where I live, made a sound & complete stop at the stop sign, then proceeded to turn (with no great speed) onto the street when out of nowhere, the cop behind me turns on his lights! What? I proceed to pull over and he comes up on my passenger's side.
Cop: Do you know why I pulled you over?
Natalie: Honestly, I have no idea.
Cop: Your windows are tinted too dark. Will you roll up your window to here? (Indicating with his finger stuck in my open window about half way up)
Natalie: (thinking... What??? Seriously? You pulled me over for windows that are too dark?)
Cop: This front window only lets in 28% of the light. That is way over the legal limit. Let's check the back window. Wow. This one is even worse. It only lets in 11% of the light. This is like the 10th darkest window tinting I've ever seen.
Natalie: Are you serious? I had the dealership tint the windows to legal limits when I bought the car. (Of course in my stupidity and blond moment I failed to tell him that I had bought the car in AZ and that I had just moved from there).
Cop: Well, you should tell the dealership not to do illegal things to your car.
Natalie: Seriously?
Seriously? What the ??? This is one of the dumbest, most inane things I have ever heard of. I pay Plymouth taxes for a police department that isn't protecting me, they are wasting their time giving people $128 window tinting tickets? I was doing nothing to harm anyone around me, wasn't driving recklessly, obeyed the speed limit... but yet, somehow the color of my windows is illegal. And the fine... it is the same as if I had been carying a small amount of Maraijuana, not that I ever would be, but seriously? How can anyone even think that these two things could carry similar fines.
Since I was so close to home, I was ready to turn around, pack up my things and move back to Arizona where my window tinting isn't illegal, or if it was, at least they would give me a warning and a chance to fix it before giving me a ticket. It's a good thing I'm not keeping score on things I love and hate about MN because this would be one fat X across the whole row of hate.
5 comments:
Hang in there Natalie. Stay in your job a year and prove you can work from Arizona. I hate stupid laws too!!
Pretty ridiculous!! Did the officer have a light spectrometer to determine the light infiltration?!? Sounds a little hokie to me but maybe the department was low on window tinting tickets for the year. You really think that they would spend more time cracking down on the really crimes against society, i.e, j-walking, kids graffitiing on sidewalks with chalk, littering when a kid lets a balloon go. Now that's the kind of police department it sounds like you have. I do feel bad about your ticket.
That stinks. I had a similar experience here in Texas. I was on I-25 headed towards San Antonio and I get pulled over for going 6 mph over the speed limit! One, I think it's crazy to pull anyone over that isn't going at least 10 mph over, but 2 the ticket was $200! No joke. 6 mph is $200. Worse yet, in Texas they can give you a ticket of $150 for going even 1 mph over. Insane. I also couldn't just write a check and mail it. I had to contact the courthouse in a county that is so small it took 4 weeks for them to properly log my ticket so that I could finally pay it - by money order. Seriously missed the west then (Wyoming, Arizona, Idaho, Montana) places I would have been honked at for driving too slow. Here's too lame traffic fines.
I'm indignant on your behalf! He really said, "You should tell the dealership no to do illegal things to your car"???? Wow. That's crazy.
I cannot believe that!! And the marijuana comment puts it all in perspective! Who are these midwesterners and why aren't they catching criminals!
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