Calm Down There, Speed Racer!

I’m a woman in my early thirties and have been driving for over seventeen years. I have a pretty good driving record, only getting pulled over four times.

The second time I got pulled over was when I was twenty-one. I had finished work late one Saturday night and was driving home. The route I was on went through a business district, which was absolutely dead. I hadn’t seen another car for at least ten minutes. I was driving a fifteen-year-old car my mom had bought about three weeks prior. 

I saw lights flashing behind me, so I pulled over. Two state troopers got out. One came to talk to me. The other one walked around the car, shining his flashlight in my car. The second trooper never spoke to me.

Trooper: “Do you know why I pulled you over?”

Me: “Honestly, no.”

Trooper: “You were doing twenty-six in a twenty-five.”

I was stunned into silence.

Trooper: “License and registration.”

I handed over both. He looked them over.

Trooper: “This car is registered to [Mom]. Who is that?”

Me: “That’s my mom.”

Trooper: “You have different last names.”

Me: “[Mom] is my mom. The car is registered to the same address that’s on my license.”

He was clearly unhappy to let it go.

Trooper: “This car has paper plates.”

Me: “Yeah, my mom just bought it a few weeks ago.”

Trooper: “They expire on [date four days from now].”

Me: “Yes.”

Trooper: “Why don’t you have real plates?”

Me: “My mom ordered vanity plates. They haven’t come yet.”

Trooper: “Why are you out this late at night?”

Me: “I worked until close at 11:00 pm at [Workplace], and cleanup took about forty-five minutes to finish. I’m headed home.”

The trooper went to the back of the car to talk to his colleague for a few minutes. Then, they went back to the cruiser, I assume to run my information. Finally, the trooper came back to the window and gave me my license and the registration back.

Trooper: “You’re free to go. Watch your speed.”

Me: “Okay, will do, sir.”

I think they were just bored, and that’s why they pulled me over. The whole thing last nearly twenty minutes.

By the way, the vanity plate arrived in the mail the following Monday, two days before the paper plates expired.

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