December in Mooreland
So yesterday started out as a normal day, at least as normal as it ever gets in Mooreland, I suppose :)
Eli had school, so we dropped him off, and we were heading to (another) Y to work out (he goes to preschool at the Y in our neighborhood but it's small and not my fave to workout at LOL)
We hopped on the expressway, out to the suburbs-Keith had to drop some hoops off at the Y there, and we planned to work out there. Mairi was reading, Lachlan sleeping, Keith and I were talking about Hoopnotica (of course).
All of a sudden, a state trooper pulls up right along side Keith, and just stays there-it was a slowdown through the city, 40 miles an hour, but he wasn't speeding (for once...:P), or at least not by more than ~5mph. He made eye contact with her, for some reason, no idea why he does that. I just ignore officers, lol.
She slows down, gets over behind us, and turns on the lights.
UGH.
Here is where the fun begins.
She was mean. Just absolutely horrific to the point where we filed a complaint. Keith has been pulled over probably 50 times minimum since we've been together. That might be conservative. He used to speed really badly when we were dating/first married because of his panic and anxiety. And thus, he got pulled over a lot (and somehow, hardly ever got a ticket, which is really even more amazing).
I digress-the point is, I've seen a lot of officers. State, county, suburb, city, other states, you name it, we've been pulled over by them (we=Keith, to be clear, I am proud of my records of NO SPEEDING TICKETS EVER, thankyouverymuch LOL) and I have NEVER seen someone like her.
She pulled us over because the inspection was up. Now, the inspection has been up on our vehicles throughout the years more time than it has NOT been up, and we (he) have been pulled over many times for that (or always in a roadcheck, I swear we've never had a roadcheck happen when our vehicle is inspected, it's always murphy's law of inspection and we hit them when we are uninspected, ugh)
Point being, this is nothing new. And officers do one of the following two things "Ok, your inspection is up, are you aware of that? Ok, I won't give you a ticket because it's just up, so just please get it taken care asap" or "I have to give you a ticket, but get it inspected and the ticket will be dropped if it's within X amount of time". Totally nice, never an issue, nothing. It's a freaking inspection, so let's just all get a grip on ourselves, thanks.
Our good friend who is an officer has said many times, that inspection is a gateway-officers don't care (except maybe to generate some easy income for NYS), it's just a way to be able to see if anything else is going on in the vehicle like drugs, guns, whatever.
Well this officer, OMG. you would have thought we were freaking columbian drug lords by the way she freaked out.
She immediately started saying how she could have the vehicle towed, it wasn't allowed to be on the road, it would cost us hundreds of dollars to get it out of storage, just on and on and so MEAN. It was just recently up, and it's not like anyone doesn't fix and inspection just because they don't want to-half the time it's the freaking check engine lights or some stupid thing that NY deems necessary to give you the sticker. Red tape money making crap (another vote to move for Cali is the fact they have no inspections there, yay!)
Now you might think this is bad. Except really, this was the mild part.
Did I mention she was mean mean person? Because she was. MEAN.
She takes Keith's license, and asks if it's the current address. He says no, we moved, notified DMV, and haven't gotten new licenses. She freaks out, starts yelling at him, if the address doesn't match in the DMV system, then he's in big trouble, just theatening and MEAN MEAN MEAAAAN.
She then comes back, and took the meanness up a few notches or 400.
"Sir, your license is SUSPENDED. SUSPENDED!!" (yelling, with a tone such as she is saying YOU ARE A CHILD MOLESTER RAPIST!)
Keith is like wtf are you talking about?? No it is not!
And then she says it is suspended through the Town of Brighton, and Keith says "I had a speeding ticket from last spring, and I paid it, that's all I know about Brighton" and she just continues to yell and freak out, it was awful.
It went just like this:
"I can ARREST you RIGHT now. RIGHT NOW. I can put you in handcuffs, and take you downtown and arraign you in front of a judge. He's gone for the day, so you'll be sitting in there all night long. How would you like that? HUH? I can do that RIGHT NOW"
And on and on-Keith is trying to tell her "ma'am, there is a mistake! My license is not suspended, I took care of that, I have no idea but can you call the courts?"
And that made her even more angry "That is not my job, are you kidding me? I have better things to do" and blah blah blah.
Note that at this point, Mairi is hysterically crying "please don't arrest my daddy, my birthday is tomorrow, I need my daddy for my birthday!" and I am crying, and us crying makes her more angry, apparently, it was the weirdest thing!
(Keep in mind that just a few nights ago, Keith was pulled over by an officer who thought he was stealing stuff b/c he had hoops in the trunk, HAHA, and that guy ran his license and didn't care about the inspection, so NO IDEA what is going on)
She is just this hot mess of a state trooper, going on and on about how we were awful parents because we are driving an uninspected vehicle and Keith's license is suspended (except it's not, actually). I am honestly surprised she didn't call CPS.
Then to make matters worse, she wouldn't let me drive, because I did not have my physical license ON ME. I was like, um, can I give you my number? NO she wouldn't let me do that. She would not follow us home (we were like 3 minutes from our house), and she was just so incredibly mean and rude, I cannot even begin to explain it accurately. I was hysterically sobbing, because she seriously sounded like she was about to arrest Keith and have the car towed and leave us on the side of the road!! (expressway).
So, finally we had our AMAZING sitter who is living with us right now, hop a cab and come and drive us home. While we were waiting for her (and the trooper just sitting behind us, wouldn't leave til she ran our sitter's license too, omg-and she also threatened us that if we didn't have someone come fast enough, she would at the very least tow the car, if not put Keith in jail, because she had better things to do than sit around all day behind us and risk her life on the expressway), Keith called Brighton Town Court-they said the following "yes, you paid that ticket back in May! Yes, it's all taken care of, there were no points on your license, nothing, we have NO IDEA why it's showing up as you having a suspended license, we are so sorry, this is obviously a processing error on our end, wow, we feel so badly, we are just so so so sorry" and they were SO UPSET that this happened to him-and immediately called DMV and printed out paperwork for Keith, however the officer refused to talk to the court on the phone (b/c obviously we could have just had someone pretending to be the court, or something, no idea) and so Sonya had to drive us to the court, to get the paperwork.
Again, the court was sooooo apologetic to Keith "we have no idea how or why this could have happened! This is so weird! Nothing like this has ever happened before! This is from so long ago, it doesn't even make any sense, this is so crazy!"
And at this point, though my head felt like exploding, with anger and stress, I actually had to start laughing b/c WTF, WHO DOES THIS HAPPEN TO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! It's funny until it's not but then it's funny again, I guess.
So, he got his paperwork to carry with him, saying it was a court error until the DMV gets updated, but wow. The officer also kept his actual license, isn't that awful? So now he would have to pay to get a new one, except that was his extra one b/c we got enhanced licenses recently. I would have been livid if she took that one! She can keep that other one, whatever.
So we are filing a complaint against her because I have never felt so belittled, so horrible, so scared, so powerless in my life.
what is even more frustrating is that my friend who is a CITY officer (And sees crazy stuff), always says that if he pulls someone over and they are nice people, just doing the best they can, and are polite and respectful, he never gives them even a ticket, and certainly doesn't hassle them-and we've found this to be true from ALL the plethora of officers we've dealt with in the past 12 years...but not this lady. She was like ready to GO.
the one thing I will say that is super amazing, is that in the midst of it all, Mairi said "Mama, she is so unhappy, that's why she wants us to be unhappy. We need to pray for her, she needs Jesus to help her feel better!" and I was all "mairi, you are right but i do NOT WANT TO PRAY FOR HER" and Mairi said "ok mama, i will just do it" and we spent some time praying for her (sitting in the car, on the side of the expressway, waiting for Sonya) and it was such a great example that Mairi set for me-that we need to pray for our "enemies" and someone having a bad day, no one wants to be like that for real, she must have some terrible things going on, or just saw something terrible (like an accident b/c someone didn't have a license or inspection, I dont know) but I am trying to have grace with her and forgive her and keep praying for her, Mairi prayed for her again at bed last night too.
So that is the story of how Keith almost got arrested, is that not ridiculous?
Eli had school, so we dropped him off, and we were heading to (another) Y to work out (he goes to preschool at the Y in our neighborhood but it's small and not my fave to workout at LOL)
We hopped on the expressway, out to the suburbs-Keith had to drop some hoops off at the Y there, and we planned to work out there. Mairi was reading, Lachlan sleeping, Keith and I were talking about Hoopnotica (of course).
All of a sudden, a state trooper pulls up right along side Keith, and just stays there-it was a slowdown through the city, 40 miles an hour, but he wasn't speeding (for once...:P), or at least not by more than ~5mph. He made eye contact with her, for some reason, no idea why he does that. I just ignore officers, lol.
She slows down, gets over behind us, and turns on the lights.
UGH.
Here is where the fun begins.
She was mean. Just absolutely horrific to the point where we filed a complaint. Keith has been pulled over probably 50 times minimum since we've been together. That might be conservative. He used to speed really badly when we were dating/first married because of his panic and anxiety. And thus, he got pulled over a lot (and somehow, hardly ever got a ticket, which is really even more amazing).
I digress-the point is, I've seen a lot of officers. State, county, suburb, city, other states, you name it, we've been pulled over by them (we=Keith, to be clear, I am proud of my records of NO SPEEDING TICKETS EVER, thankyouverymuch LOL) and I have NEVER seen someone like her.
She pulled us over because the inspection was up. Now, the inspection has been up on our vehicles throughout the years more time than it has NOT been up, and we (he) have been pulled over many times for that (or always in a roadcheck, I swear we've never had a roadcheck happen when our vehicle is inspected, it's always murphy's law of inspection and we hit them when we are uninspected, ugh)
Point being, this is nothing new. And officers do one of the following two things "Ok, your inspection is up, are you aware of that? Ok, I won't give you a ticket because it's just up, so just please get it taken care asap" or "I have to give you a ticket, but get it inspected and the ticket will be dropped if it's within X amount of time". Totally nice, never an issue, nothing. It's a freaking inspection, so let's just all get a grip on ourselves, thanks.
Our good friend who is an officer has said many times, that inspection is a gateway-officers don't care (except maybe to generate some easy income for NYS), it's just a way to be able to see if anything else is going on in the vehicle like drugs, guns, whatever.
Well this officer, OMG. you would have thought we were freaking columbian drug lords by the way she freaked out.
She immediately started saying how she could have the vehicle towed, it wasn't allowed to be on the road, it would cost us hundreds of dollars to get it out of storage, just on and on and so MEAN. It was just recently up, and it's not like anyone doesn't fix and inspection just because they don't want to-half the time it's the freaking check engine lights or some stupid thing that NY deems necessary to give you the sticker. Red tape money making crap (another vote to move for Cali is the fact they have no inspections there, yay!)
Now you might think this is bad. Except really, this was the mild part.
Did I mention she was mean mean person? Because she was. MEAN.
She takes Keith's license, and asks if it's the current address. He says no, we moved, notified DMV, and haven't gotten new licenses. She freaks out, starts yelling at him, if the address doesn't match in the DMV system, then he's in big trouble, just theatening and MEAN MEAN MEAAAAN.
She then comes back, and took the meanness up a few notches or 400.
"Sir, your license is SUSPENDED. SUSPENDED!!" (yelling, with a tone such as she is saying YOU ARE A CHILD MOLESTER RAPIST!)
Keith is like wtf are you talking about?? No it is not!
And then she says it is suspended through the Town of Brighton, and Keith says "I had a speeding ticket from last spring, and I paid it, that's all I know about Brighton" and she just continues to yell and freak out, it was awful.
It went just like this:
"I can ARREST you RIGHT now. RIGHT NOW. I can put you in handcuffs, and take you downtown and arraign you in front of a judge. He's gone for the day, so you'll be sitting in there all night long. How would you like that? HUH? I can do that RIGHT NOW"
And on and on-Keith is trying to tell her "ma'am, there is a mistake! My license is not suspended, I took care of that, I have no idea but can you call the courts?"
And that made her even more angry "That is not my job, are you kidding me? I have better things to do" and blah blah blah.
Note that at this point, Mairi is hysterically crying "please don't arrest my daddy, my birthday is tomorrow, I need my daddy for my birthday!" and I am crying, and us crying makes her more angry, apparently, it was the weirdest thing!
(Keep in mind that just a few nights ago, Keith was pulled over by an officer who thought he was stealing stuff b/c he had hoops in the trunk, HAHA, and that guy ran his license and didn't care about the inspection, so NO IDEA what is going on)
She is just this hot mess of a state trooper, going on and on about how we were awful parents because we are driving an uninspected vehicle and Keith's license is suspended (except it's not, actually). I am honestly surprised she didn't call CPS.
Then to make matters worse, she wouldn't let me drive, because I did not have my physical license ON ME. I was like, um, can I give you my number? NO she wouldn't let me do that. She would not follow us home (we were like 3 minutes from our house), and she was just so incredibly mean and rude, I cannot even begin to explain it accurately. I was hysterically sobbing, because she seriously sounded like she was about to arrest Keith and have the car towed and leave us on the side of the road!! (expressway).
So, finally we had our AMAZING sitter who is living with us right now, hop a cab and come and drive us home. While we were waiting for her (and the trooper just sitting behind us, wouldn't leave til she ran our sitter's license too, omg-and she also threatened us that if we didn't have someone come fast enough, she would at the very least tow the car, if not put Keith in jail, because she had better things to do than sit around all day behind us and risk her life on the expressway), Keith called Brighton Town Court-they said the following "yes, you paid that ticket back in May! Yes, it's all taken care of, there were no points on your license, nothing, we have NO IDEA why it's showing up as you having a suspended license, we are so sorry, this is obviously a processing error on our end, wow, we feel so badly, we are just so so so sorry" and they were SO UPSET that this happened to him-and immediately called DMV and printed out paperwork for Keith, however the officer refused to talk to the court on the phone (b/c obviously we could have just had someone pretending to be the court, or something, no idea) and so Sonya had to drive us to the court, to get the paperwork.
Again, the court was sooooo apologetic to Keith "we have no idea how or why this could have happened! This is so weird! Nothing like this has ever happened before! This is from so long ago, it doesn't even make any sense, this is so crazy!"
And at this point, though my head felt like exploding, with anger and stress, I actually had to start laughing b/c WTF, WHO DOES THIS HAPPEN TO?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! It's funny until it's not but then it's funny again, I guess.
So, he got his paperwork to carry with him, saying it was a court error until the DMV gets updated, but wow. The officer also kept his actual license, isn't that awful? So now he would have to pay to get a new one, except that was his extra one b/c we got enhanced licenses recently. I would have been livid if she took that one! She can keep that other one, whatever.
So we are filing a complaint against her because I have never felt so belittled, so horrible, so scared, so powerless in my life.
what is even more frustrating is that my friend who is a CITY officer (And sees crazy stuff), always says that if he pulls someone over and they are nice people, just doing the best they can, and are polite and respectful, he never gives them even a ticket, and certainly doesn't hassle them-and we've found this to be true from ALL the plethora of officers we've dealt with in the past 12 years...but not this lady. She was like ready to GO.
the one thing I will say that is super amazing, is that in the midst of it all, Mairi said "Mama, she is so unhappy, that's why she wants us to be unhappy. We need to pray for her, she needs Jesus to help her feel better!" and I was all "mairi, you are right but i do NOT WANT TO PRAY FOR HER" and Mairi said "ok mama, i will just do it" and we spent some time praying for her (sitting in the car, on the side of the expressway, waiting for Sonya) and it was such a great example that Mairi set for me-that we need to pray for our "enemies" and someone having a bad day, no one wants to be like that for real, she must have some terrible things going on, or just saw something terrible (like an accident b/c someone didn't have a license or inspection, I dont know) but I am trying to have grace with her and forgive her and keep praying for her, Mairi prayed for her again at bed last night too.
So that is the story of how Keith almost got arrested, is that not ridiculous?