Just Call Me Hood Rat

When I think of my childhood and life as a teenager, I would say I was a good kid. I did a few things I probably shouldn't have in high school, including attending a few underage parties, but nothing too extreme. I never got in trouble - save for two run-ins with the police.

The first was on Valentine's Day. I think it was my first Valentine's Day with Travis, which puts us in 2000. I was 17. We had just dropped off my dad's girlfriend at the airport in Champaign and were headed home for the night. I missed my turn, so I took the next right. It was only after I was already committed to the turn that Travis pointed out that I was pulling into a bad neighborhood. I kind of freaked, and tried to speed through until I could take another right to get back on the main road.

After doing what I like to call a California stop, I got pulled over by a cop. He was very stern, asked for my driver's license and insurance. I was driving my dad's car, so I searched through the glove box for the insurance. The only card I pulled out was expired, but it was all I could find, so I gave it to him with my ID. A couple minutes later two more cop cars pulled up. The first policeman came up to my window, while another went up to Travis' window and had us both get out of the car.

He asked us to empty our pockets, slowly. We did it. Then he asked for permission to search my car. "Sure," I said. I have nothing to hide. He made sure to ask if I had any drugs or weapons in the vehicle. "No, sir." Travis and I just stood on the side of the road where the police had set us and watched them go through my dad's vehicle.

Thankfully, they did not tear into the seats or break anything. I did chuckle when they opened up my Sea World pen with a killer whale on the tip. I'm assuming they were looking for drugs.

After they had completed the search, the original cop came up to talk to me again. He admitted that we looked out of place for this neighborhood, so they assumed we were buying drugs. I explained what had happened and he actually apologized for the inconvenience. He said, under other circumstance, he would have let me go for rolling through a stop sign in a known bad neighborhood. BUT. My insurance card is expired and that's a no-no. Since their reason for pulling me over was for running a stop sign, they had to give me two tickets: one for the stop sign and one for expired insurance.

The good news was they let me drive home. I was shaken, but glad that the cops were nice to us in the end. I had to go to court some time later with the current insurance card to prove the vehicle was insured. Unfortunately, even though the vehicle was insured, I had to pay for a year's worth of this special, expensive insurance for people who were driving without proof of insurance. Annoying, but I could deal. It's my responsibility as a driver to make sure a vehicle is legal before I get on the road.

That following fall, I had graduated from high school and was attending the local community college. I was driving home from class and was planning to stop by and surprise Travis. It was 3:55 pm and I was driving through a school zone. Since the school zone speed changes at 4:00 pm, I decided it was close enough and went the normal posted speed.

Unlucky for me, there was a cop waiting at the very end of the school zone. He clocked me "speeding" and pulled me over immediately. I was parked on the side of a fairly busy road, which was horribly embarassing for me. He did the normal routine and got my driver's license and special insurance card. He came back a couple minutes later and asked me to get out of the car.

Oh no.

I was getting shaky, since I was unsure what warranted this behavior. He made me turn off the car and take my keys and purse with me. After he got me to the back of my car, he asked me if I knew my driver's license was suspended.

Blink, blink.

"WHAT?! No! Why is it suspended?!"

"I'm sorry, but my computer doesn't tell me the 'why', only that it is suspended."

"What? Ok. So, what do I do? What happens now?"

"Well, you can't drive on a suspended vehicle, so I will have to drive you home. Then you can contact your lawyer or the courthouse to find out how to solve this."

By this point, I was SOBBING. I couldn't stop. The police officer told me to stop crying, that I wasn't in THAT much trouble. He said that he would have let me go on a warning for speeding through a school zone right at 4, but he couldn't let the driver's license part go. Are you kidding me?! I have to get a ride home in the BACK of a cop car! That is humiliating and SCARY.

Needless to say, I didn't get to stop by Travis' house. After a little digging, I found out that my special insurance had been cancelled, which was against the rules for my previous encounter with the police. I had to have that insurance for a year and cancelling it beforehand is frowned upon. Question was, why was it cancelled? I had to pay for an entire year in advance. I didn't get any money back, so I had no notification that it had been cancelled.

After speaking with the insurance company, it turned out that they had accidentally cancelled it. HA. My court date was set for something ridiculous, like two months later. In the meantime, my MOM had to drive me to COLLEGE everyday. Then she picked me up and brought me to work. Lucky for us, we worked at the same place, so it was easy to get a ride home from her at the end of the day.

It took one visit, on my court date to prove that it was the insurance company that had cancelled my insurance, not me. I had paid in full and could prove it. They reinstated my license and I have not had a problem since.

The result of these run-ins with the police is that I have a constant fear of all police when I am driving. I am convinced that they will pull me over for something that is just this side of illegal and then find something else monstrous wrong with me or my car. As far as I know, I am doing everything legally. But that's just the thing. If I am doing something illegal, I don't know about it.

All that, topped with the fact that Travis got pulled over here in Texas for driving without a seatbelt when he was, in fact, WEARING HIS SEATBELT, has me a little terrified. Everytime I see a cop on the road, my pulse speeds up and I sweat just a little.

I need therapy.