Tuesday, December 2, 2008

OMG! I got "pulled over" for crossing the street at a crosswalk!

Attention. Do NOT attempt to cross the street in Santa Monica if you do not have a full "walk" sign permitting you to do so. I just took a little spin around the block in an attempt to shake off my slumber and had a run in with the law. Maybe it was because I was on my Blackberry talking to Chicken Ass, but I decided to cross the street while the "red hand" was still up. I swear I looked both ways first. No cars. Felt safe. Except that 3/4 of the way across I realized there was a cop on a motorcycle at the corner. Sh*t. "Excuse me, miss, I need to talk to you," he said.

"Jen, let me call you back."



The conversation started off with him saying, "You leave me no choice but to give you a ticket." Which left me thinking you gotta be kidding me! I have given this town far too much money for parking meters and parking tickets and now...NOW...I'm going to get a ticket for crossing 4 seconds too soon???

"Really? I'm sorry. You're right. I know. I understand."

He went on to lecture me about why it was unsafe to do what I did, especially since all my attention was being paid to my phone call. I said, "Yeah, I have to be honest, I didn't even see you until I was already to the corner." This seemed to be the turning point when he decided he was just going to warn me. I apologized and thanked him for not giving me a ticket.

Whew. Lesson learned.

Do you have a similar story? Any odd run ins with the law? Share yours here on The Dealio!
Posted by Leah at 3:58 PM
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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 2, 2008 at 4:27 PM

    Keg stands, bowling, getting pulled over by police...so much excitement in the past few days....what will your next story be Leah?

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  2. LeahDecember 2, 2008 at 4:45 PM

    Haha no kidding...who knows...

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  3. Howard GreensteinDecember 2, 2008 at 4:45 PM

    Were you also chewing gum at the same time, because, whoa.

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  4. LeahDecember 2, 2008 at 5:29 PM

    No, but I hand one hand in my pocket and the other one was giving a peace sign...

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  5. AnonymousDecember 2, 2008 at 5:37 PM

    That happened to me once, when I was 15. The police officer saw me walk from point A to B when the red hand was up. The P.O. was on point A, and yelled at me to go and speak to him, "Come here now!" he said. So I assumed he wanted me to go from point B to A "now!" when the light was red. So, because I was 15 and susceptible to fear of "the man", I crossed over and he gave me two tickets. One for the red hand, and another for following orders.

    Point of the story: Judges don't typically penalize you for crossing the street. They find it a waste of time. So fight the law, D'Emilio!
    -Z (twitter.com/MrZ3000)

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  6. AnonymousDecember 3, 2008 at 11:08 AM

    At many of the intersections I cross, I've learned the light pattern so I can usually time when to start crossing. And, if there's no traffic, I'll go ahead and cross right away, especially if there's a bus I need to catch and I can either see it coming or I know it's supposed to be at the stop a few blocks down the street at another cross street. Also I usually can time it so the walk light comes on before I'm all the way across.

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  7. LeahDecember 3, 2008 at 11:21 AM

    Sounds like you've figured that all out...just be careful if there is a cop on a motorcycle waiting at the corner ;-)

    ReplyDelete

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