It was a Friday afternoon. Me and 2 other friends were going up North to a few lakes to go fishing and smoke a lot of weed and drink some beers. All these lakes are on gravel roads and deep in bush so I was not worried about any cops or getting in any trouble, and if I did get pulled over I felt like I would know exactly what to do and I would get off scar free. We had already gone to one lake and were going farther in to go to the next one after no bites. I was driving along and then I see this black truck in the distance and as soon as it sees me the blue and red lights are on. I had just drank within the last 2 hours three beer or so and had 3 26's of beer laying on the floor in the passengers side. I also have a full pill bottle of weed, and I wasn't sure what to do with it or how close he was to my window, so I casually put it in the door jam. I slam on my brakes and the cop is already out of his vehicle, and i slide right past him in the mud, splashing the cop and getting him all muddy. He walks up to my window and notes on how I splashed him but it was his fault. He sticks his head in my window and says that he can smell alcohol in the vehicle and asks if we have any open liquor, which we don't. My friend who is 19 in the passenger seat (who has previous offenses for weed) notes to the cop that we do have some but its not opened. He tells me to quickly get out of my vehicle for him and I get nervous as fuck at this point. I jump out of the vehicle, take my keys, shut my door and lock it. He says give me your keys and I didn't want to say no, so I handed him them, he opens up my car and starts looking through it. He asks my friends their names. As hes doing this, another cop walks up to me and says "Are you aware your vehicles plates are expired and you are unregistered?" I just slump and say "I didn't know officer, this is my dads vehicle, I had no idea the plates were expired." He says he can have this vehicle towed right now at our expense. Meanwhile, the other cop whose searching is looking through the back and finds a black case. He asks what it is and my friend says "I don't know, tackle or something?" As hes about to open it he says "You guys smoking any dope today?" I say no officer, as he opens it and finds a completely resin-filled pipe. He asks me whose it is and I say I have no clue, as it was not mine. He asks me again whose it is and I just say it must be one of theres because its not mine and I have never seen it before. He just puts it back in the back seat. He then looks at my door and instantly grabs the pill container. I am ready to die right about now, heart pounding. He turns to me and says and whose is this? All I can say is mine sir. He says okay. He proceeds to tell me about how bad this whole situation is, and I could have my vehicle towed, marijuana charges, and a $1500 fine for driving an unregistered vehicle. I am baked out of my mind and just feeling like this could never happen to me. He asks me if we had just came from the other lake, I said yes we threw a few casts, didn't catch. He says all three of you fishing? I say yes. He goes and asks for our fishing licenses. My friend in the back seat is 17, on probation, and did not have a fishing license. The cop asks him if he was fishing, he said no, the cop told him he was lying and said he had one more chance, he said he was and the cop took his fishing rod and tackle. He writes him up a fine and tells me to come to the truck. He tells me I'm just doing everything wrong and I am stupid as hell for doing this. He says legally I shouldn't be driving my vehicle. The officer starts saying that hes going to have to turn my illegal narcotics in, and their going to ask him where he got it from, and he will have to say it was from me. I slump and act real bummed out, and he says "Well think of it this way, we are letting you off easy, because technically you shouldn't be driving this vehicle, but you are going to follow us out of the bush, to someones house, and you are going to use their phone to phone someone to issue a permit so you can drive home." I am really upset about the weed charge at this point, my parents are going to kill me. We follow him for about 30 miles until we get to a house. I tell my dad that I need him to buy me a permit, because my plates are expired. He tells me that it automatically pays for it he just hasn't put the stickers on, he told the cop that and the cop just says I can go. I am ecstatic at this point and I say to the cop can I ask you a question? He says yeah, and I ask him how much a marijuana charge is. He's like "Do you really want me to write you one up?" and I say what? I thought you were going to tell them it was mine. He says no I changed my mind, I'm just going to confiscate it because you don't look like bad kids. I say thank you, and go on my merry way.
Don't be afraid to say no to a cop, you were well within your rights to do so. When you got out of the car and locked it, everything was going great. You should never have handed him your keys. Even if it turned into a big pain in your ass, they wouldn't be able to stick you with anything because you were only exercising your rights. Seriously, learn that shit, live it.
See, all cops aren't dicks like most "Internet gangsters" would have you believe. You were honest with him, didnt fuck around, and pretty much got off scotfree. Good for you.
It's that attitude that instantly turns cops into assholes, and i guarantee you the OP wouldn't have got off as easily if he was being a dick and not co-operating.
^this, and he wouldve found the bud anyways but he just wouldve been more pissed cuz OP wouldve wasted his time.
So you guys are completely happy to have a cop trample all over your rights? Those rights are there for a reason. Just because he let them off doesn't mean that they weren't out of line. You can still exercise your rights and be polite about it, I've done it many a time, just because you are showing the cops that you have knowledge of the law doesn't mean you are an "internet gangster"
but do u really think that theyy care about your rights. even if u try fighting it, who is the judge going to believe, the police officer or the kid with some bud.
Um, that's why they have lawyers? And what they found wouldn't be what is in question, it's the methods they use.
aite well i guess to each his own, i just feel if they're suspicious they will do anything to find out wut u got. and yes thats wut lawyers are for but lawyers can be quite pricey.
Yes, lawyers can be quite pricey. But, if it boils down to paying a lawyer to get me out of some stuff or dealing with a whole bunch of bullshit that was pinned on me illegally, court costs, community service fees, and a permanent conviction record, I'll happily pay those lawyer costs. Now granted, OP did luck out this time. It's not always going to be like that though, you don't know going into a situation if a cop is going to be a cool cop or not. I'd say that happens a fairly small percentage of the time. It's better to be armed with the law going into any situation dealing with the police rather than letting them do whatever they want.
The internet gangster comment is directed at the posters that will hit this thread later in the night with cliche phases like "Fuck the po-lice"; something that sounds rad in a song, and in movies, and online, but something you'd get maced in the face if you said to a cop in RL when he asked you to step out of the car. Sure everyone has their “rightsâ€, but acting belligerent, or worse; like a smartass, and saying things like “I know my rights†is shit people really need to stop doing once they leave high school. You doing nothing but wasting time, and the outcome is still going to be the same, if not worse than it would be if you simply co-operate. Do you honestly believe that cop would have gone "oh i cant have a look in your car? ok then guys, your free to leave" The ops story highlights this well, with the final comments of the cop being “do you really want me to write you up?â€. That cop was obviously happy with the way the Op & friends co-operated, he didn't really want to write them a ticket, and doing so would have wasted his time.
I definitely agree with you on the "fuck tha po-lice" attitude. That will get you nowhere. I learned a long time ago that you always have to act respectfully when dealing with the police. The cop should never had asked for his keys though. He should have asked if he could search the vehicle. At that point OP should have said, "Sir, this is my father's vehicle, you will have to get permission from him." If they go to the trouble of calling his dad and his dad says yes, well then they can search it. Another thing, if the tags were automatically renewed, then the officer should have checked on that before it even got to the OP calling his dad and would have seen that they are valid and just need the sticker put on. I know this isn't the best thread to have this discussion because it all worked out. And I am happy for the OP that it did, because from his post it could have went very badly and we'd likely be having a whole different discussion right now. But like I said, you don't know who you are going to be dealing with, so it's better to be prepared. Thought the internet gangster comment was directed at me, sorry for the rolly eyes. Makes me think this should be an interesting thread to look at when I wake up tomorrow, lol.
!st: Laws vary soooo much from state to state, hell, even county to county, you'd have to BE a lawyer to be fully aware of how far you could have "Pushed" your rights. 2nd: OP would have surely caught the full charge AND more importantly, his Parents would have found out!
I wasn't sure whether or not to give him the keys, but I really didn't want to say no and have him get in my face to try and intimidate me into giving him them. I was already in a bad position.
Thank you. And dudes,80% of cops are not like this,they would love to fuck you up,dont you see cops or campus pd?
Moral of the story. When going out to basically smoke a shitload of weed and drink beer under the guise of a "fishing trip", don't fucking worry about if the fish are biting or not, especially when driving around in a car full of empties, underage kids while "baked out of my mind". Just stay there and "fish" next time.
And what you would have found is that judges tend to side with a cops story FAR quicker than they do a defendants, regardless of the "evidence" being presented in this case. The cop would have only had to start with "well your Honor, we pulled him over, and none of them had fishing licenses, and his tags were expired" to start building up the negative character image around you. You would have been pretty much screwed after that. I think we should all exercise our Rights. But, much like the Right to free speech, every situation is a judgment call on how far to push your right to exercise your Rights, and that also includes situations where you are pulled over by the cops. Sadly enough, the real world and human instinct works a little differently than a 200-year old document. Fortunately, in this case, it likely worked out for the better for everyone, because had you been a hard-ass about your Rights, he would have probably written you up for everything he could have at the time(no fishing license, registration, tags, etc.). Even with no MJ charges, you would have still paid quite a bit in just those fines.
You did the right thing, if he smelled alcohol then he had probable cause to search, if you denied him he could have done it anyways and then he probably would have breathalyzed you, since he had cause to do that also.