The siren shocked me – very loud. I looked in my rear-view mirror and sure enough, a Plano cop was on my tail. A big cruiser, and a big guy driving. I pulled over quick – and sat there. Two ladies were walking their dogs across the street, and one of them shouted out at me – “looks like you were speeding!” – and they both laughed, annoyingly. I yelled back – “I’m sure I was!”. I thought to myself, ‘that’s pretty rude’- I had never heard a sidewalk commentator when someone got pulled over by a cop.
I was hot and sweaty, running late, and annoyed.
The cop got out of the cruiser and headed toward me. Sure enough, he didn’t look happy and he looked
like he needed a fresh Dunkin Donut to calm him down. I said – ‘hello officer’. He said, “would you mind turning down your
radio sir, please?” I said – “well,
actually I do – it’s harder to do than you might think.”
He says- “really? Would
you mind standing over here on the sidewalk then?” I said ‘ok’, and went to the sidewalk and
turned to him and asked – “officer, what is this all about, is this really a
good use of your time, really??” Now,
the second those words left my mouth I realized I should have held it back.
He immediately started wagging his finger at me and said “do
you realize you just ran a stop sign back there?!” I said, “no, what stop sign?”. He said “there” – pointing at a corner,
one block back. “Do you have your
license”. I said “no, actually, you won’t
believe this, but I left it at home. But
I live in the neighborhood, you can follow me to my house and I’ll run in and
get it.”
Incredulous – very annoyed, he says – “never mind. I’m just going to give you a warning – you HAVE
to STOP at all stop signs!!”
I couldn’t believe it!
He turned and walked away. My lucky day.
And I got back on my bicycle, and finished my Friday
afternoon 20-mile route. Plano cops. Can’t live with’em, can’t live without ‘em.
