No Good Deed goes Unpunished... Again.

[Lazylion]

Today I was working 4 blocks from home, so I went home for lunch. On the way home, I was stopped in the left of 2 lanes at a stop sign, when from off a passing landscape truck and trailer rig, a weedwacker came a-flying. It crashed to the pavement and rolled to a stop just in front of my car. I threw it in park, jumped out and waved my arms at the truck, but evidently they were unaware, and moving on with their lives.
I decided to move the weedwacker to the grass next to the road. Being a good neighbor, brother's keeper kinda guy. As I was getting back in the car, I saw that a city shuttle bus had pulled up in the right lane. As I started across the intersection, I heard the bus honking at me. I was puzzled, as he was in the other lane turning right, I was moving, not in his way at all. I motored on.
Got home, fixed my usual ham, cheese, mayo, mustard on rye/pump swirl bread, and was consuming same, when there was a knock at the door.
THE COPS WERE AT MY DOOR, WEEDWACKER IN HAND, TO CITE ME FOR LITTERING.
First of all, I never litter. You'd know it is true if you ever saw the mounds of trash in my car.
It seems the bus driver had taken down my plate and called the law on me. I guess he hadn't come around the bend in time to see where it came from, or me picking it up out of the roadway.

To all busybodys: Please make sure you have all the facts before you go to squealing. And if you don't have them all, kindly STFU. Thank you.


PS: the cops were very professional, and accepted my explanation no problem, so at least that part went well.

[JonathanD]

At least your not in jail.
Thats what you get for being helpful...a kick int he balls.

[funkalicious101]

Atleast you can take solace in the fact you did the right thing.

[Stumbo]

Idiot bus driver. Like you would have jumped out of your car in the middle of the street to dump a weed eater.

The real dumb asses are the landscapers. They don't tie down their equipment well enough. I had a full size shovel pop out of truck in front of me on the freeway. The truck hit a bump and the shovel, being held in a tube attached to the wooden stake bed, jumped up like it had been shot out of a cannon. Fortunately, it flew up high enough for me to drive under (at 65mph). I didn't look behind me (didn't want to ) to see what happened.

btw, I would have taken the weed eater home with me.

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

Idiot bus driver. Like you would have jumped out of your car in the middle of the street to dump a weed eater.

Wouldn't I at least have gone to the right lane?

Originally Posted by Stumbo

...I would have taken the weed eater home with me.

Got one already.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Lazylion

Got one already.

Coulda sold it or donated it.

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

Coulda sold it or donated it.

I thought the crew might miss it, retrace their steps, and recover it. Hard to maneuver a truck and trailer like that, sometimes you wind up a ways down the road before you can turn around. I wasn't waiting around to guard it til then!

[casualmadness]

Must be something in the water 'round here. Similar thing happened to me a few months ago. I was driving home from work when a van passed me and smacked into a Jeep Cherokee in front of me. The Jeep pulled over onto the shoulder. The van slowed down as f he were pulling over, then sped away and hit the next exit. As he was slowing down, I passed him (because he slowed down and sped up several times as if he were trying to decide if he wanted to stop or not). It was just a swipe on the Jeep and not even a car accident really, so I passed the van so that I could get home. But I saw the van hit the exit in my rear view.

Later that night, as I was trying to get to sleep, I hear a very loud and authoritative knock at my door. Yep, it was the cops. Some jackass called them with my plate number saying that I had hit someone and failed to stop at the accident. So the cop wanted to come into my apartment and look around. Then I had to get dressed and go out and show him my car and let him look for dents and other evidence of a wreck with me present.

The cop was very professional and he apologized for wasting my time and shook my hand and thanked me for being cool and all. But yeah, I'm with you; people who don't know the facts need to **** off.

[Armueller2001]

I'm pretty sure the cops can't issue a citation for something they didn't witness... I'd fight it.

Is there any proof it was you? Other than someone who SAYS they saw you do it

[a.green.martian]

I love that the Frederick PD will show up at your house to fine you for littering, but they won't do a damn thing about the crack dealing kids that loiter on my block or my neighbors that find the sidewalk a good spot to set up their dinner table.

[jazzy grille]

I would have gotten beaten and sprayed with mace.

Cops hate me... It's weird, I am totally respectfull (Yes, Sir), but they want to arrest me.

[MJ5150]

Wow, sorry to hear the bad news. I have a similar story involving a ladder, and it happened on the freeway. A state patrolman pulled me over a couple miles down the road and made me go back and pick it up. So while I was there picking it up, another do-gooder pulled over and accused me of trying to steal it! The state patrolman who followed me approached the other motorist and explained that I had dumped it on the side of the road and he was making me pick it up.

The ladder had the company name scribbled on the side, so I called them and explained the hassle I went through. The ladder was mangled up and pretty much unusable, but I took it to one of their job sites and dropped it off.

-Mike

[Jonyak]

while mine is not exactly a good deed.

My band at athe time had a gig, so we pulled a van up to the back of our jam space and started loading stuff out. took off into town.

when we got there the police had 2 cars across the street barricading us. the pulled us all out and had us up against the car.

apparently some moron though we had broke into our own house and stole a bunch of stuff. they had then called the cops and they had busted us.

the cops apologized profusely about the mistake.

I just wish people would mind there own business sometimes. but if it was a real theft I would be happy about it I guess.

[tZer]

Not to blindly take up for the police and how they treat a person they believe may have committed a crime, but I just got a phone call from my singer who is also an avid mountain biker.

He told me he was out training for a trip this weekend and was a few miles into some woods on a trail when he came across what he thought was a dead body off the trail a ways!! He hopped off his bike, wary that he may be getting set up for an ambush to steal his very expensive bike but discovered it was a girl who had apparently overdosed in an attempt to kill herself. She had written on her arms, "I'm sorry" and was breathing, but in serious distress.

He could not get a signal on his cell phone, so he made sure she was breathing and booked to where he could call for help - called for help and brought a bunch of fellow bikers back to her to wait for the paramedics. He helped the paramedics load her up and then was told the cops wanted to talk to him.

He said the cops were grilling him like he was a criminal with questions like, "What were you doing in those woods anyway?" and "Exactly how in the world is it that you just happened to find her?" etc...

OK - KNOWING the facts, these questions seem very outrageous. However, the cops do not know these facts and IF for some reason my singer was actually a sadistic killer whose M.O. was to drug women and stage suicides and they didn't ask these questions, what we we think of our police force then?

Bottom line - they have to act as they do. And just as the OP's story ends just fine, so did my singer's. The cops are sometimes maligned with good reason, but more often than not they are simply automatically held in contempt by the general public and thought of as jack-booted thugs.

I think if we all tried to consider exactly what it is that the cops are responsible for doing we may not be so offended when they are doing it to us.

[DaveDeVille]

my dog , a Great Dane / Irish Wolfhound mix , stepped on a sharp
metal gardening edge an cut her foot to the bone .

my son and i rushed her to the only emergency vet office open
that late at night { it was after midnight } .
i had to put blankets down because of all the blood ,
while my son sat with her to keep her safe ...

after we dropped her off with the vets office for a rather expensive overnight stay ,
i pull into a nearby gas station to wash the blood from the back of my truck ,
and to rise off the blankets as best as we could ... lots and lots of blood .

about an hour after my son and i arrived back home , two police cars pull into our drive way ,
and started questioning me about a child being involved with a bloody blanket ...

at first they were very much on high alert , almost like they expected trouble from me .
after i explained , and showed them the blankets , they apologized and explained
that someone at the gas station witnessed my son , covered in blood , crying ...
and me washing the blood out of my truck .

so , i guess i'm actually glad someone cared enough to call the cops ...

[Jeremy Crockett]

Originally Posted by Lazylion

**snip**
the cops were very professional, and accepted my explanation no problem, so at least that part went well...

So, you did or did not get the citation?

Originally Posted by Lazylion

Please make sure you have all the facts before you go to squealing. And if you don't have them all, kindly STFU. Thank you.

The logic here is really poor. This implies that when one witnesses what might actually be a crime, said citizen must do the investigating him or herself before reporting it.

You do see that... right?

(I realize you're venting... but I couldn't help responding.)

[Lazylion]

Originally Posted by OctoberMooN

The logic here is really poor. D

Ha ha, logic, eh? All I know is, I did a good deed and got the law called on me. I'll leave it to the deep thinkers to assess the logic therein.

Edit: I did not get cited.