FLASHLIGHT STORIES.......tell yours here.

I frequently visit a local park that has a wonderful little fishing hole. Upon entering the gate to enter I had noticed a sign that read, "park open from 6am to 9pm". I had put in a couple hours of relaxing casting with my pole and managed to catch 2 pickerel, 1 bass, and a crappy before dusk fell upon me. "Dusk", was obviously my alterior motivation for being out, as the sun was quickly setting. And as I found myself playing with my latest light, my SC600 MKII I had lost track of time and the sudden realization that it was nearly 9:00 had quickly come upon me. Yep, I was unexpectedly made well aware of the time by a police patrol man that was making his nightly round through the park. He asked to see my i.d. and a humbly submitted to him without any problems. Then he asked a pointed question, he said " do you know what time it is"? This was my chance to shine.....literally. I responded be letting him know that I was out fishing and was looking forward to it getting dark, because I am a "flashlight geek". He responded with, "was THAT your flashlight I saw shining at the tops of the trees as I was driving around"? Of course with a sheepish, yet proud grin I admitted it was me. That's when he proceeded to tell me about how powerful his light is and then proceeded to turn it on and shine it around. It was not very impressive to my standards and I wasn't able to make out what it was. It looked to be a 2 D cell light "Mag-ish" light with an aspherical lens of some sort. Then it was my turn. I pulled out my 4" power house and threw a 900lm wall of light that swallowed up every trace of the officers light. He was like WOOOOOW, that's a super bright light and so compact, where did you get it. At this point I was able to tell him about a great online community of light "geeks" and that the light was available online. We shot the breeze for a bit and went on our merry way. But I'm guessing there may now be a Hudson NH officer potentially reading this thread due to an encounter with a CPFer who hung out a little too late playing with his flashlight after a fishing trip. Its difficult not to want one of our high powered lights once you have seen one in action. Thus, the addiction lives on. Have a great night CPFers. Light it up!!!! Steve

Great idea for a thread... My story goes the opposite way of yours and dates back about 4 years:

I was out camping with my cousin and we left the camp ground for the trails at about 10 p.m., past the time the trails are supposedly closed. We walked by a young man working there who was throwing rocks at a couple of flat-bed sized trash and recycling containers. I asked him what was going on and he said to watch out for the skunks between the containers. We walked by and didn't give it a second thought, thinking he'd be gone soon.

When we came back a little past midnight, we where greeted by a brighter than normal store-bought flashlight. We almost threw our firepower back at him, when we realized it was still the same kid as before. We stopped next to the containers as he was shining his light between the containers -I believe it was a Strion. I asked if he wanted some help :naughty:, so I whipped out my brand new TK45 test sample and lit the whole area like daytime in an almost audible "BANG", expecting a "WHAT THE HECK IS THAT!" response, but no reaction at all on his part :ironic:.... not a SINGLE reaction :shakehead, NOTHING He just ran around to the other side of the containers, where the light couldn't reach! I came around and lit the whole scene for him to show there was absolutely nothing there (what kind of skunk would just stand there for hours when being thrown rocks at?).

After a 2 hour+ fight, this kid finally could go to rest knowing there was no more skunk there, and thanked us for the help. But he never mentioned a thing about the light. I mean, I just walked in with daylight in one hand, saved the day and not a single word on it!

Not that long ago I was driving on the German autobahn to The Neterlands where I live. It was 23:00 so it was pitch dark. The Germans don't have light poles next to the road. Suddently my fuelgauge was dropping from full to 75% in like 2 minutes. After that I was smelling fuel. I immediately stopped the car on the shoulder of the road popped the hood open took my FourSevens Minix (which I have always with me) and saw that the fuel line was ruptured. Probably a stone marten has bitten through the cable. It's a real plague in my village. I also always have a Victorinox Multi tool in the car. Together with my FourSevens Minix I managed to fix the fuel line and drive home. The ruptured fuel line squirted the fuel all over the engine and I had to spill it of with some water first.
Withtout the light it was impossible to fix the problem and drive home safely.