image courtesy of http://100days.ning.com
I had a lucky day Monday. I was going to post about it on Tuesday, but got a little distracted by events – see post 10-for-tuesday.
Let’s go back a year in time…
I went to India for a business trip. My husband convinced me to leave my car ownership and insurance papers at home in case my wallet got stolen on my trip.
The day after I got home, I was driving and got pulled over by the police.
image courtesy of http://www.blueskyfinancialgroup.com
The officer said I didn’t stop at the stop sign. I said that I thought I had stopped (and I really did think I had). He said – “you did stop when the car in front of you stopped, and then you slowed down as you pulled up to the stop sign, but you didn’t make a full stop”. So, I think to myself, I was going 1 mile an hour after I stopped fully behind the front car and I slowed down to what – ZERO – when I moved up to the stop sign, but I didn’t fully stop. Are you kidding me?
But, I am smart enough to not say all these things out loud. I thought my respectful manner would help in some way but I was wrong.
When he came back to my car, he handed me three tickets – one for the failure to stop, second one for not producing my ownership, and the third for failure to produce my proof of insurance.
Fast forward 13 months and I am sitting in traffic court on Monday. Two weeks ago, when I was working through my schedule I was irritated that I had to go to traffic court. I imagined myself going to court, being delayed, and then scrambling to get to work. I decided to take a vacation day instead and consider any time after traffic court as free time just for me.
So the stage is set and I head out to traffic court Monday morning. When they called my name, they said the officer was either injured on duty or assigned to another jurisdiction. Bottom line, he would not be attending court and my tickets were all CANCELLED. I was free to go. $450 in my pocket and the whole process only took 30 minutes.
image courtesy of http://studentweb.cencol.ca/wtsang15/
Went for lunch with my husband, spent time looking for wedding rings (bought later in the week), enjoyed Big One and Little One after school, and a great martial arts class that night.
And considering what happened on Tuesday, it was a great decision to spend time with the family on Monday instead of at work.
A very lucky day indeed.
image courtesy of http://romantica-j.blogspot.com
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Congratulations on your new found riches. And ability to hold your tongue at 1 mile an hour. Mighty smart, you are.
By the way…I love that fence photo up there.
Hi Rebecca…thanks for visiting. I appreciate your comment about holding my tongue…very hard to do in that moment for sure.
I’m thrilled you enjoyed my fence photo. I thought it was an awesome sight when I took the photo on a very cold winter day recently.
Traffic court? Is every fine analysed there, or just if you choose to?
$450 sounds like an awful lot. In fact, for us those fines may have added up to less than R2000, which is approxiamtely $285. We also dont have issues with ownership (half the cars in SA are probably stolen-haha), or insurance. We do however have to produce a driver’s licence and they check whether the car is legally on the road- licensed. So things a little different.
What happens if you are driving someone else’s car?
xx
Hi bokkie. You only go to traffic court if you choose to. Since I got the three tickets, I wanted to invest the time and effort to try and reduce them. I loved your commentary on the SA laws.
If you are driving someone else’s car, you still need to produce the papers for it if you are pulled over. A stop for one infraction can often turn into multiple tickets. We can even get a ticket for broken taillight or broken headlight. Bet you don’t have those!
That was a lucky day! Hope many more come your way.
Thanks Zahara. I am doing the dance for luck every day, trying to keep my spirits up through this cold, snowy winter.
What a great ending to your story WTM!
Hi bulldozer00 – thanks for the visit.
Hoping you have another great Monday tomorrow….then a great Tuesday…Wednesday…. (You get the idea!) 🙂 Your attitude continues to be amazing! Have a great Sunday with your family!
Hi idiot. I am planning a great day each day. Some days prove a little harder to convince than others, but geez, I might as well keep trying! I’ll send you some pixie dust for you to have a great Wednesday with me. 🙂
Glad you had such a great day! You needed that 🙂 PS…I would TOTALLY love to have a Mean Girls night!
xoxo
Hi rosebandit. Thanks for the visit and comment. I told Big One that I had outed her Mean Girls routine with the gang of speaking all the parts while watching the movie. She laughed and said all my blog friends are welcome, but you’ll have to try and catch up!
You have the most positive outlook! I wish I was the head of a Fortune 500 company, as I would offer you a job as CEO!
Hi expressmom. Get working on that, will you? But wait a few weeks as I need to enjoy some down time.
I do have to say the positive outlook is practiced and intentional. I could easily get stuck on all the stupid, crappy things that happen in a day. I just know that can not lead me to enjoying my life.
First ticket I ever got, a Chicago cop tagged me for crossing a white line on a freeway. Apparently the semi that cut in front of me wasn’t supposed to be a factor. I moved into a lane I technically wasn’t supposed to, which I thought was better than crashing into the back of the truck. I went back to the scene the next day, got photos, drawings, I even lined up no less than 3 signed testimonies, including my father who drove the same route for 20 years while working for the phone company. I showed up on my court date bright and early, in my best suit, all ready for a bare-knuckle legal brawl. The judge was overloaded with cases and decided to speed things up. He called my case, asked what the infraction was, told me to watch the lines next time, and threw the case out, even though the cop was right there. Never got the chance to use all my hard work! Beat the heck out of the time I was stopped for speeding, left my wallet at home, DID have my wife’s purse on the front seat, and when the cop called her work, they claimed she didn’t work there! Only time I was ever handcuffed – at least in a police car. 😉
Hi John. That ticket is hard to believe. I can see him stopping you and maybe chatting about it, but not actually giving the ticket. I am glad the judge threw it out. Wonder if you got to give your case – with testimonies and all – if you would have needed to pursue a career as a lawyer because you would have gotten such a rush?!