Justin,
Your Story conjured up memories for me as well.
It was just before Christmas and My Brother and two friends went with me
to El Paso for a little "across the border tourism". I was home on
leave from the USAF and had my '67 Camaro with the newly built 375 hp
327 Corvette engine in it.
We started back toward the big city of Lamesa, Texas on the interstate
and just as we got to a wide spot in the road that served as a county
seat, we were pulled over by the Texas Department of Public Safety. The
guy ridding shotgun carefully placed a case of beer on the side of the
road just as we stopped (out of sight of the troopers). We had all been
drinking so the smell must have been obvious, but the trooper wrote me
up for "Loud Pipes".
Instead of simply writing a ticket, he asked us to follow him into the
little town, where at 10:30 at night just before Christmas, a Justice of
the Peace heard our case.
In short, he gave us the option of paying $50 on the spot or spending
the night in jail. Needless to say, we pooled our money and barely came
up with the 50 bucks. We then picked up our beer and got back on the
road. Never, did I receive any receipt for the cash, any paperwork for
transaction or have the incident show up on my driving record. I'm sure
the cops split the money with the Judge and helped pay for their
Christmas!
Such is life and "Law West of the Pecos"!
Joe
jmwagner wrote:
>
> A little Triumph spin on this fireworks thread...
>
> Around '85, I was in my second year in Dallas, Texas... a recession was
>hitting
> Texas big-time and I lost my job...
>
> Times were tough... and there wasn't much money...
>
> My best friend and I drove my Triumph TR 7 just a few miles out... into the
>next
> county/city where fireworks were legal...
>
> We bought the fireworks... with about $30.00... which was really all we had
>to our
> names... and we just felt life had been so bad lately... that we wanted to
>treat
> ourselves and have a little fun... (We were living on Tacos from a place
>that had
> 'em at 4 for a dollar!)
>
> We turned the car around for home.... fireworks in the trunk... drove 4
> blocks...crossed the city line... and a bunch of cops pulled us over... They
> confiscated our fireworks... no paperwork... no ticket... just took the
>fireworks
> and put them in their trunk. I know I had watery eyes... and when I looked
>at my
> friend... he was swelled up equally... It was really wrong... it was a sting
> operation that probably just stocked the officer's home firework's
>displays... It
> was the 4th of July... it was simply unamerican to do that... We hadn't
>set off
> anything... Who's to say we weren't crossing the border to have lunch? It
>was so
> wrong... and it didn't matter that we told the officers how much that
>expenditure
> meant to us...
>
> I think I left Dallas a few months after that.... where St. Petersburg
>(Florida)
> police pulled me over 3 times..... as I tried to cross their city in an old
>beat up
> Mustang... trying to get to Sarasota... but that's another story... and
>belongs on
> a FORD newsgroup...
>
> --Justin
--
"If you can't excel with talent, triumph with effort."
-- Dave Weinbaum in National Enquirer
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