What's Your Worst Traffic Stop Story?

(Adam Savage voice) “Well THERE’S your problem”Photo: Barry Williams for NY Daily News (Getty Images)

Most of us have been there; you’re cruising along somewhere between Point A and Point B, maintaining a perfectly reasonable speed regardless of what little things like “speed limit signs” say, when your rear view mirror lights up red and blue. Shit. They got you.

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Maybe this one will be easy, you think. A bit of back-and-forth, a stern warning, and you’ll be free to go. But when the cop arrives at your driver’s window, eyes hidden behind dark sunglasses and a stern expression painted across his face, you know this won’t be your best run-in. We’ve all had bad ones, but today we want to know your worst.

My worst run-in with police wasn’t even a particularly egregious ticket — it was just so, so dumb. Late one night, I was clocked at something like 15 mph over the limit on a flat, empty, open four-lane road. I was heading home from a finals review session at college, and was the only one out driving — except, apparently, one cop.

That dumb little ticket meant a court visit, an argument against the state prosecutor developed on the fly, and a Saturday sacrificed for what I called Good Boy Driving School — an ex-cop sitting backwards in a chair like a youth pastor, telling all us under-24s why fast driving is morally untenable. I of course paid rapt attention, and did not spend the entire time flirting in the back of the room. Not even a little.

That’s my worst cop run-in story. It’s not the worst due to violence or cost, but simply how dumb the whole thing was. Your story, though, may be something different. Tell us your worst cop run-in tale down in the comments, and we’ll look through our top fifteen later in the week. Bonus points for stories outside the statute of limitations.