Re: 255HP JetSki's & The Clueless
Sunday afternoon...just got back from crusin' wife..20 month old daughter...Chessy retriever...great day. Was bothered by the foolish antics of a gaggle of teens in dad's 26 Searay,not observing no-wake's while pulling along a tube...cutting back & forth thru boat traffic and generally doing just about anything to become a statistic.Pulling thru the red/greens into my marina when a siren erupts off my stern,look back and its the local DNR boat with Laurel & Hardie aboard,I ask why i am being stopped while theres enough infractions around to keep the Navy busy for a month...Laurel tells me there was a complaint about a Go-Fast doing about 75 thru a congested area & i endangered some boaters....HUH? i ask if in fact he notices that my wife & child are aboard,then i ask if there was a description of the boat to which he says "No".so politely i ask if there done, so i can get my tired/cranky child back home,and nicely explain i hold a USCG Captain License,have been boating for over 25 yrs,never had an infraction,and NEVER go more than 25-30 on inshore waters,Too which he replies.".I am going to board your vessel and search for contraband" WHAT!!! Right about now is a good time to describe my wife...32 yrs old,owns a Pilate's studio,runs 10 miles a day and is HOT, not to mention very well educated..and a bit of a temper...The fun part is her good friend and partner in business is the wife of a South Carolina Supreme Court Judge..HAHA. so while Laurel & Hardi are succeeding in pissing me off,upsetting my child and causing steam to erupt from wifes ears..shes on the phone calling her friend at home..explaining the situation....after 10 minutes of searching,DNR gets a call...There faces turn RED...apologizes are offered..Declined.And off we go. As i stated when i started this rant we just got home (6:10 est)and there was a message on machine from lieutenant so&so of SC DNR,asking to please return his call at my convenience.....So should i get them fired? What do you think?
While I do agree with jay_merrill's post on how to deal with a traffic or on water stop, I have to say your situation reminds me of a time I got pulled over coming home from work on a Fri. night about 3AM. I was cruising along on a main two lane highway about 10 miles from home, through a section pretty well known for DWI stops. A patrol car came up behind me, turned on his lights and I pulled over in the first wide shoulder. I turned on my dome light, got out my paperwork from my glove box as the officer was still running my tags. He came up to the car with gun in hand, took my paperwork and at that point I asked if I had done something wrong, he didn't reply. He looked at my paperwork, handed it back to me and told me to wait. By that point about four more cars had arrived. A second officer walked up to my car, while two others walked up and around from behind shining flashlights around in the car.
I asked the one officer what all the fuss was about and what they were looking for, he said there had just been a robbery and my car fit the description. I told the officer that I had just come from work, (I was still wearing my work uniform). I then asked what the description of the car was and where was the robbery, he said witnesses described a late model, red sports car, and that they thought it was a Corvette. He said they were waiting for an officer to arrive from the next town who observed the car traveling at a high rate of speed in this direction. At that point I was pretty much amused since I was driving a green Mercury Bobcat with a 4 cylinder engine and over 300k on it. The officer continued to say that the car had been clocked at over 100mph and was now also wanted for evading police.
A few minutes later another unmarked car arrived, that officer got out and asked where the Corvette was, the first officer pointed to my car.
I only wish I had a camera when that officer heard that. The only comment I heard was "Funny looking 'vette ain't it, and it's not even green". Another officer, apparently from the town I we were in, came up and apologized for the hassle and I got a bit about them just being thorough.
They wasted about an hour of my time, but I was so shocked that they would confuse a description of a red sports car with a rusty green Mercury Bobcat, as well as the fact that a buddy of mine worked for that same force so I just let it slide. But I did make a point of pointing out to them that the car they had pulled over was by far no sports car and that it's top speed was probably not much more than about 75 mph with its 90 HP motor. Several guys I worked with who were following behind me had pulled over a bit up the road and had walked back to observe as well, they were rolling around laughing at the fact that anyone could confuse a Bobcat with a Corvette.
A few days later a local paper wrote that they had caught the thieves in the same, stolen red "sports car", which turned out to be a mint restored classic Corvette. Again, not even close to a green Mercury Bobcat.
The officers were cautious during the stop but never overstepped their boundaries. The part that got me was that it took them an hour to figure out I wasn't driving a red sports car. The driver was also described as being "short and of slight build", I have dark hair, am 6' 3" tall and weigh about 280lbs. Again, not even close.
I don't fault them for doing their job, I fault whoever hired a bunch of guys that don't know a Mercury Bobcat (a Pinto clone), from a Corvette. What kept running through my mind was what if I were driving a Corvette? Or, how many Corvettes did the pass up to pull me over?
