Twice in minutes

Ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right? I had a second hand experience of this through one of the many "friends" I made last Friday.

I see this car drive by from my perch. I noticed the driver was talking on her cellular phone as she stops her car at a red light. Not a big violation, but a violation none the less. I pulled onto the roadway behind her as she continued to talk on her phone. She had been talking on it the entire time the light was red.

As the traffic light went to green, I saw her look at her interior rear view mirror as she literally tossed the phone down like it was a hot potato. I swear some of the way these drivers ditch their phones, I'm waiting for one to come out of an open car door window.

When she begins to drive through the intersection, I light her up (turned on my emergency lights) and she pulls into the parking lot of a local restaurant. I walk up to the driver door where she is now sobbing and says "Are you going to give me another ticket?"

I looked at the driver looking for that mental replay of the last time I gave her a ticket, but didn't find anything. So I asked her if I had ticketed her before. She looked up at me and said "I don't know, didn't you just give me this one?" She produced a copy of a ticket she had just been issued by a friend and motor cop who works for the agency just next door.

The ticket was for speeding. She had been traveling 58 mph in a posted 40 mph roadway. I looked at the time of the speeding ticket and saw 10:49 am written in the box. My time of stop for the same vehicle was 10:55 am.

She told me she was on her cellular phone telling her dad she had just gotten a ticket for speeding. I don't know if she was able to tell dad about her impending cell phone ticket.

So I walk back to my motor to write her a ticket. I tell dispatch that I'm "Code 4" meaning I'm a-okay. The dispatcher asked me if I needed a 10-29 (wants / warrants, driver license check) on the driver. I replied, "I think she's 10-26 (clear of warrants and valid driver license). 4Mary1 just cited her for speed 6 minutes ago."

Needless to say the driver was not happy about the cell phone ticket, and I learned that she was a waitress at the restaurant we had stopped at.

Looks like I won't be eating there in uniform.