Running a red light, or two.... and officer friendly

I thought that my recent adventure was blogworthy, and it contains tips that might be helpful to you in the future, should you ever get pulled over after running two red lights, and you've left home without your liscense.

On friday evening I attended a nice spiritual talk with my mom at The Natural Oasis market on Monroe Ave. We left Natural Oasis and started driving home when my mom remembers that she needs a tooth brush. So I keep driving down Monroe instead of turning into my neighborhood. Next thing I know I proceed to look up and I'm running a red light, and a few feet in front of me is another red light that I'm also running. This was all by accident, as these two lights are very close together on Monroe. Now enter Mr. Policeman who is flashing police lights in my rear view mirror. Oh boy. My mom and I had just come from this fun "Evening with God" and now I've commited a crime by accidentally running two redlights. The second after I saw the flashing lights in my rear view mirror I calmly told myself that I would not be receiving a ticket this evening. I have a goal in my life of never receiving a ticket for a traffic violation, and I had no intention of accepting one from this officer, but I had the intention of apologizing for what I did because I was trully sorry for it. Of course I would have had to accept it the ticket should he decide to give me one, but I was hoping that the power of positive thinking would help me out here. ;)

I learned from my hubby, who used to work for the Sheriffs dept that when getting pulled over you must do the following things, and it will greatly decrease your chances of getting a ticket.

1. Turn off your car and put your keys on your dashboard.
2. Roll down your window and keep your hands at 10 and 2 on your steering wheel.
3. Ask the officers permission before obtaining anything that they ask from you, such as "May I open my glovebox to provide you with my registration.
4. Always admit what you've done and apologize.

I felt like I might be in some hot water because I had left my licsense at home, but I was hopeful that my friendly personality might make this whole thing all better, and the nice officer would allow me to go on with my evening. The conversation went like this

officer "Good evening maam, may I see your licsense and registration."

Me "Gulp. Hello. I'm sorry sir but I live around the corner and I left home without my liscense, but I can provide you with my registration."

Officer, who now looks annoyed "You mean you don't have a liscense or you forgot it."

Me "Yes sir I have a liscense, and I apologize for leaving home without it this evening. Would you like me to get my registration for you, its in my glovebox."

Officer" Do you know why I pulled you over."

Me " Yes I believe that it had something to do with the lights."

So, to keep a short story short, Officer Friendly listened to my confession and apology about running red lights, and he said that he thought I made it through the first one, but definetly not the second one, and he would just give me a warning this time. He took my registration and went back to his car for five minutes, and while it was a bit nerve racking, I just kept calmly telling myself that I wouldn't be receiving a ticket this evening. I had some doubts becuase he stayed in his car for so long punching numbers or whatever into his computer, but when he came back he was all smiles, and told me to have a very nice evening, stay safe, and "Good nite." Wait...where was my warning?? What a nice Mr. Police officer. I think that he was being nice because I was nice to him, and I followed all of Daves instructions about what to do when getting pulled over! So take note folks, and don't run red lights!!