At the beginning of the year my wife’s old car (her old car
because I inherited it from her) finally died.
What she had many years before nicknamed “Arthur” finally gave
out. At over 330,000 miles she got her
money’s worth. We were not at a place
financially to replace it. Really
though, how many people driving a car at over 300k miles do so because they
choose to? It would be a month before we
could be able to replace it. We were
blessed that her brother owns a business with a fleet of cars and could loan us
a car for a while.
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| Arthur served us for over 330,000 miles. |
Tony owns a security business. His fleet consists of former police cars
purchased at auction. I am completely
grateful for access to a car at no price, but police cars are totally uncomfortable. And I only rode in the front seat! My poor kids had to endure it in the
back. The front seats are not adjustable
and there’s a cage. There was no room in
the back. And instead of seatbacks being
upholstered they were hard plastic and metal up top. And if I needed to reach my kids in the
back? Tough. The metal cage blocked all access. I had to
pull over.
There was a perk to driving an old cop car. At lunch break one time I went to Arby’s. I placed my order and when I got to the pick
up window the total was about half of what it should be. “Did you get my whole
order? It should be about twice as much!”
“Yes sir. We give a
50% discount to cops.”
A bigger man would have corrected them and paid full
price. Not me though. I never claimed to be a cop. Just because I drove a black and white Crown
Victoria with lights on the roof doesn’t mean I’m a cop! I took it as pay back for the fact that folks
on the highway always slowed down when I got close. Drive the speed limit people! Cops deserve a raise just for putting up with
slow drivers.
One night my two boys and I were almost home. We live in a rural suburb of Tulsa. So, it was dark and I made my exit off one
highway to another and stopped at a red light.
I saw coming from the opposite direction a car getting pulled over go
into a QuikTrip gas station. Only he didn’t
stop. The driver immediately left the
parking lot and turned right in front of me with police in pursuit. Cool I just saw the beginning of a police
chase. Sirens turned on. The cop’s heart
surely began to race. I’m sure 90%
police work is boring, but when the stuff gets real and justice is about to get
served adrenaline gets shot into the veins like a junkie getting a fix. Cop car or not, I’m just a civilian. I’ll let the pro’s handle that.
Anyway, I was eastbound and they were northbound. My light turned green and I moved on.
We drove east about 2 ½ miles and we came upon a wreck. It was real dark and there were cars behind
me. It looked like the wreck was in the
left lane and so I began to switch to the right lane. Whoosh!
Out of nowhere a car zoomed past me and nearly hit my brother-in-law’scar with us in it. That car broke hard and swerved right and headed south on a road.
In fact, it was the road that leads to the chapel I got married at. Anyway, I heard sirens and saw lights come at
me from behind. Several sheriff’s cars
were catching up on the suspect and screeched south as well.
Oh man, that was crazy.
I was driving an old cop car and nearly was in a wreck at the scene of
the first wreck caused by a car chase after I already had been at that same car
chase. Make sense? I can only assume that the first
wreck led to the car being pulled over when the driver panicked. As it turns out, less than a year prior he had been involved in another chase.
Great guy apparently. Gonna guess
that with his history he’d be denied bail.
Pretty sure he’d be considered a flight risk.
I joked with my brother-in-law that he may get a call from the
Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office. After checking dash cam video they’ll see some
idiot in a security car with his company name and phone number on it nearly
causing a wreck. He laughed nervously. All publicity is good publicity, right? Within a week we’d get a new car and I hope I
never drive, or ride, in a cop car again.
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| A pic of my kids from around this time. The one on the left MAY BE asleep. This is from inside the new car we got, not the cop car.. |
A song I'd pick for this post...
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