ciroccoj | Ode To Idiots

Jerks and idiots can occasionally be a wonderful resource for the rest of us. In the last two days, two jerks may have saved me about $300. Sweet :)

Got stopped the other day by a very nice cop who looked like he'd just finished up with another car, in that there was a mightily pissed off man getting out of his car and going into a building and shooting daggers at said cop. Cop asked me for my license, registration and insurance. I gave him my license, started looking for the other two papers... and couldn't find them.

Oh. Damn. I explained to the guy that I was in my mother's car, and I'd thought she had the papers in it but apparently she didn't... and I had a copy of the insurance at home, as I was trying to get it transferred to my name, but...

Then he asks me whether I realized I just drove through a "No drive through" sign.

"What?! Oh! No, I totally didn't - I'm so sorry, I totally didn't see it."

"Do you drive through here often, ma'am?"

"No, I'm from Nepean."

"OK, well..." cop thinks for a while, I apologize profusely, and at one point he says, "OK, I'm going to charge you with [blahblahbylawcakes] instead of [blahblahcriminalviolationcakes]. That means instead of having to pay $150 and losing points and having your insurance go up, you pay $30 and lose no points and the insurance company doesn't hear about it."

"Oh, thank you!"

"No prob. Now, about the insurance and ownership-"

And somewhere around here the guy who had stalked into a nearby building in a huff comes storming out again, and tells the cop, "That guy who was behind me almost sideswiped me. Whyn't you charge him, then, instead of people who are just driving through?"

"I didn't see him, sir."

"Well I was honking my horn, maybe you coulda looked up, catch people who are actually doing something dangerous - instead of charging people for driving and look, there's people driving right past us right now [there were, BTW - a steady stream; the no drive-through sign wasn't exactly conspicuous] and you're not doing anything about them, are you?"

"No sir."

"Whyn't you think about that, then!" and the guy storms off.

The cop just shrugs and calls out, "Have a nice day," and comes back to me. And tells me that he's going to write up a $70 ticket for the insurance thing, $110 for the ownership, and put a 72-hour delay on both. "Just go down to Elgin St, show them the papers, they'll void the tickets. That sound OK?"

"Oh, yes, thank you!"

"No problem, ma'am, you have a nice day."

Driving back home, the boys wanted to know how come the cop had pulled us over and how come the man had yelled at him and how come the cop had still said "Have a nice day" to him. And we had a Teachable Moment(tm), talked about getting along with people, not letting jerks get to you, being polite, treating people with respect, etc etc. Somewhere in there I talked about some of my experiences as a Customs Agent one summer (eg. the guy who stalked into our station one day and treated us all to a long and passionate diatribe on Canada's ludicrous taxation levels and how they were driving people to go to the States, ending with a pointed "Think about that!!") and I talked about what cops do and why we need them and all that lovely civics stuff.

And I pointed out that the cop had every right to fine me ($150 + $70 + $110 =) $330. And I would instead probably end up paying about $30. Because I had treated him with respect, and he had done the same to me.

So today I go to the police station, with my shiny little papers. And the guy ahead of me had been charged with the same thing, and had papers showing that he was insured for Feb 2006-Feb 2007. Didn't have anything current. But he was insured, he insisted to the cop behind the desk.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't accept that as proof of insurance-"

"Well for chrissakes, look, I've got last year's insurance, it ends Feb 2005, obviously the time I renew insurance is February!!"

"Yes, sir, but I can't be sure that you didn't just decide not to pay for insurance for this year. I have no proof that-"

"Why would I do that?!"

"To save money. Some people do-"

"Oh for god's sake. So helpful, you people, I swear-" and he grabs his papers and flounces out the door.

My turn comes up. I go up to the desk, bring out my papers, and start with, "Um, OK, I'm in kinda the same boat as that guy, except if you tell me I still have to pay the ticket I'll only be mad at myself and not at you."

She laughs and says, "Yeah, I was gonna ask, are you going to yell at me too?"

"No, this is all me. See, I have my mom's insurance paper right here, but it expired December 1. I'm still covered, I have a fax from the insurance company right here, but I don't have the actual card that says I'm currently covered."

"Oh yeah, don't worry about it, the insurance fax is good enough for me and most of the traffic guys - make sure you keep it in your car, though, until you get the replacement card. Here, give me the ticket so I can void it."

So yeah. $30 and no hike in insurance rates or loss of points. Instead of $330 and the attendant headache. At least in part because of two antagonistic jerks who made me look like a model citizen to the cops who had to deal with them :)