Re: Are those police car spotlights legal.. for me
Well, Since you are the one that started the thread, I guess it is OK to go off topic...
It was a little after midnight on a Sunday night and I was out road testing some work I had just finished on my 4WD. Drove by an office building that my family owns and leases out to a couple of different companies; noticed that all the lights in the building were on, including some of the vacant, locked offices, and there was a "strange" car kind of hiding behind some of the trees in the back corner of the parking lot.
Not being one to bother the police with things that I can handle myself, on my family's own property, I went in to check the building out, SureFire in one hand and .45 AMT Backup in the other.
Building is secure; No problems, no trace of anything wrong inside other than the lights all being on. After turning off all the lights off, I head out the front door as this young officer (one of the few in town that don't know me or my vehicle) is kind of sneaking up along the side of the building behind the wooden front door which is wide open.
I saw his vehicle blocking the main entrance to the parking lot just about the same time he saw me clearing the doorway.
He started to say something just as I looked around and saw him. I said; "It's OK, I'm one of the owners"... Not even thinking of what was in my hand..
About that time, he flicks on his Streamlight and sees the pistol in my hand; says "Oh Sh.., A gun!". He immediately starts backpedaling, trying to draw his weapon, trips over one of the cement parking bumper thingies, Does a backflip with a half gainer.
I set down my weapon & light, go help him up, make sure he is uninjured, let him call for backup, show him my ID, let him handcuff me; After a couple more officers show up, they all go through the building looking for "my accomplices", one of the officers in town that knows me pretty well personally, shows up, ID's me as an OK guy.
Neither I nor the first officer mentioned the gymnastic feat he performed there at the begining, but I have a feeling he figured out that if I had been a bad guy, he would have had to do more than go change his pants.
Oh, and it turned out that the "strange car" in the parking lot belonged to the wife of a police officer in the next township over who was in the bar down the street, and didn't want anyone to know she was there. I don't know if anything ever came of that... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
After everyone else left, he and I hung around for a few minutes chatting, and he was really nice, and friendly. Turned out that he was only a couple of weeks out of the Academy, and he really wasn't supposed to be patrolling on his own yet, but his T.O. had called in sick that night, so he went out alone. If the positions had been reversed, I'd have been both very embarassed and pretty pi....irritated. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/twakfl.gif
Other than his initial surprise, he handled himself pretty professionally, did all the right things. It was a pretty "cheap lesson" for him and I think he will probably turn out to be a great cop, and an asset to the community.