What is the silliest reason you got a ticket for?

[Chris142]

About 35 years ago my dad would do field strength readings for radio stations. This job would often take him to out of the way places.

One time he was on a dirt road out in the desert and his car broke down. The alternator failed and drained the battery.

I don't remember the specifics but this was before cell phones so he must have walked and hitch hiked to get to a phone booth.

I drove an alternator to the car and we replaced it out in the desert. No traffic came by. We were all alone out there.

I then nosed my car to his car and hooked up jumper cables to get his started.

No sooner did we hook up the cables a sheriff pulled up. We told him what happened and he could see the jumper cables connected to the 2 cars.

He proceeded to write me a ticket for facing the wrong way on a road.... A dirt road out in the desert with nobody else around.

I went to court to fight the ticket and lost. I recall it being about a $100 fine.

 

[ctechbob]

Haven't had a ticket in 15 years, but all the ones before that were legit.

Actually, that's not right, 11 years. I got a seatbelt ticket the same day I did my GBI polygraph and had to explain why I needed to change one of the answers on my questionnaire. A bit embarrassing as I'm a religious seatbelt user, that day I just pulled out into traffic before slapping it on. I was digging my wallet out of my back pocket.

 

[TimeFlies]

Speeding ticket for doing 33 kms/hr in a 30 kms/hr zone.
Beat it in court.
Another time for doing 89 kms/hr in a 70 kms/hr zone, but I had been in a 90 zone, and the snow stuck to the sign made it unreadable, and the cop knew that to.
I walked back and took a picture of it, for court, so he was yelling at me like a lunatic, because he knew that sign wasn't readable.
Beat it in court.

 

[Leo99]

Not a ticket, but I failed inspection for having a cracked after market fog light. I argued with the worker that fog lights are not a requirement so having a cracked one should not result in a failed inspection. His reply was, if it's on the car, it has to work. My remedy was to place the fog light covers over the fog lights. I returned to the inspection station a couple days later for reinspection with the covers in place. Another worker argued with me that I can't fail inspection for a cracked fog light because there is no requirement to have fog lights. Eventually, after some discussion, they passed me and I received my passing inspection sticker.

 

[Leo99]

Speeding ticket for doing 33 kms/hr in a 30 kms/hr zone.
Beat it in court.
Another time for doing 89 kms/hr in a 70 kms/hr zone, but I had been in a 90 zone, and the snow stuck to the sign made it unreadable, and the cop knew that to.
I walked back and took a picture of it, for court, so he was yelling at me like a lunatic, because he knew that sign wasn't readable.
Beat it in court.

I got a speeding ticket for 16 mph over the posted limit. That's a 4 point ticket in NJ. I went to court and tried to negotiate it down to 14 mph over the posted limit because that was only 2 points on the license. The cop said he'd give me 1 mph. I told him no, I need 2 mph because 15 mph over is still 4 points. There were about 4 court appearances over several months while I fought this and asked for extensions. I figured they'd get tired of me and acquiesce to my demands to 2 mph over. The cop and the prosecutor were very mean to me throughout this. I ran into a family friend who is an attorney and told him of my issues. He told me that he'd help. He said some rich guy just proved that police radar had a 2mph tolerance. The attorney wrote a letter to the court on my behalf citing this case. The next time I showed up to court, the prosecutor was so nice to me and amended the speeding ticket to 14mph over. The cop was still a jerk.

 

[dishdude]

I crossed a solid line from a turn only lane to the straight lane and got a ticket. Cop didn't show when I contested so it was dismissed, I was like 18. This was a legit ticket and I own it but it was pretty petty to write up.

Got harassed a few other times when I was younger, got pulled over for no reason when I was 16 and the cop accused me of putting on my seatbelt after he lit me up which was BS, I always wore my seatbelt from the time I started driving. No ticket just a "warning" for something that never happened.

I was running to my car at 16, cop stopped to grill me about reports of a "small blue car speeding" as he looked at the car I was running to trying to describe it.

Also was accused of driving around a cop car to get on a freeway, it was fully on the berm with it's lights on - not blocking the ramp. Got threatened with arrest but somehow let go without a ticket or even checking my ID.

As a result my trust in police is let's just say skeptical.

 

[BaronHK]

Two people made an illegal left turn without signaling and hit my car. The cops get out there half an hour later and take the word out of two convicted felons in the other car that I was the one that made the illegal turn. A right turn.

The police wrote me a ticket citing the wrong law (illegal LEFT turn) while drawing up a diagram and incident report clearly showing me making a right turn.

Even though the other driver didn't have a license with him or proof of car insurance, they just got some lady on the phone with the cop that said that she was the driver's mother. Then they let him go without citing him. The passenger made a claim of a "neck injury" and was taken to the hospital while the fire department scanned my insurance card. (It was a 2-3 mph collision at an angle that bent some plastic and broke my headlamp.)

I talked to the parole department up in Wisconsin and sent the passenger's parole officer the police statement from Illinois showing that the parolee (the passenger in the other car, who was a child abuser who participated in a prison riot) was in Illinois without permission, and they put a warrant out for his arrest and he fled to Mississippi. Neither one of them showed up on my court date, and the judge threw out the ticket because there were no witnesses and the police couldn't testify against me because they didn't see anything, and there were body cameras videos (state law) showing that I didn't make any guilty statements).

They never filed a claim against my car insurance, and eventually the statute of limitations on civil suits expired a couple years later.

Pleading guilty to a traffic ticket (which includes paying it and dropping it in the mail) that involved a car accident gives the other person evidence in a lawsuit but if you're found guilty of the traffic ticket, that's not evidence (under Illinois trial rules anyway), so you have to go to traffic court even if you lose and have to pay the ticket.

Thankfully, mine got thrown out, so no car insurance increase.

 

[BaronHK]

I crossed a solid line from a turn only lane to the straight lane and got a ticket. Cop didn't show when I contested so it was dismissed, I was like 18. This was a legit ticket and I own it but it was pretty petty to write up.

Got harassed a few other times when I was younger, got pulled over for no reason when I was 16 and the cop accused me of putting on my seatbelt after he lit me up which was BS, I always wore my seatbelt from the time I started driving. No ticket just a "warning" for something that never happened.

I was running to my car at 16, cop stopped to grill me about reports of a "small blue car speeding" as he looked at the car I was running to trying to describe it.

Also was accused of driving around a cop car to get on a freeway, it was fully on the berm with it's lights on - not blocking the ramp. Got threatened with arrest but somehow let go without a ticket or even checking my ID.

As a result my trust in police is let's just say skeptical.

I flipped someone off in traffic on the freeway when I was about 17 and it turned out to be a cop, he pulled up beside me and started yelling at me, so I hit the brakes and took the exit ramp and decided to drive to the movie theater and catch a show for a couple hours.

I never gave anyone the finger in traffic again. Which is probably for the best these days, especially in Illinois.

You get more cautious as you get older.

 

[Lubener]

Light bulb for rear license plate (that was just a citation to fix it) and one for tinted windows. The windows were not even close to the tinting you see today. You could read a newspaper through mine. Lost a half day of work to show a judge before and after pics when I had to remove the tinting and trashing my rear defogger) ...Thanks Cleveland police.

 

[gman2304]

I got a ticket for improper equipment ( loud mufflers ) in my 66 Chevelle SS396 L34 in 1969. I told the officer if he would follow me to the Chevy dealer a few blocks away they would confirm the mufflers were stock. Though the 550 Lift Crane cam had to idle at 900 rpm’s it did thump as if it had after market mufflers and the capped Hooker headers made it sound even louder than stock but technically it did have stock mufflers. He refused and wrote me a ticket and when I went to court the judge threw it out. From that day on he often shadowed me and I was a marked 17 year old for the rest of the summer of 69. If I could relive one year of my life …..it would be 1969!

 

[CharBaby]

I got a ticket for having the "Dealership's License Plate Frame", cover up the New York on the license plate.

 

[AKhan87]

About 35 years ago my dad would do field strength readings for radio stations. This job would often take him to out of the way places.

One time he was on a dirt road out in the desert and his car broke down. The alternator failed and drained the battery.

I don't remember the specifics but this was before cell phones so he must have walked and hitch hiked to get to a phone booth.

I drove an alternator to the car and we replaced it out in the desert. No traffic came by. We were all alone out there.

I then nosed my car to his car and hooked up jumper cables to get his started.

No sooner did we hook up the cables a sheriff pulled up. We told him what happened and he could see the jumper cables connected to the 2 cars.

He proceeded to write me a ticket for facing the wrong way on a road.... A dirt road out in the desert with nobody else around.

I went to court to fight the ticket and lost. I recall it being about a $100 fine.

that is ridiculous, I have personally never seen a cop care about this, and I have seen cars facing each other to jump-start many times...where did this happen? I would like to avoid such a POS place.

 

[AKhan87]

I crossed a solid line from a turn only lane to the straight lane and got a ticket. Cop didn't show when I contested so it was dismissed, I was like 18. This was a legit ticket and I own it but it was pretty petty to write up.

Got harassed a few other times when I was younger, got pulled over for no reason when I was 16 and the cop accused me of putting on my seatbelt after he lit me up which was BS, I always wore my seatbelt from the time I started driving. No ticket just a "warning" for something that never happened.

I was running to my car at 16, cop stopped to grill me about reports of a "small blue car speeding" as he looked at the car I was running to trying to describe it.

Also was accused of driving around a cop car to get on a freeway, it was fully on the berm with it's lights on - not blocking the ramp. Got threatened with arrest but somehow let go without a ticket or even checking my ID.

As a result my trust in police is let's just say skeptical.

I had an incident at college, where I parked my car and came back after classes and someone had sideswiped my car, I had to call the cops to get a police report for the insurance and when they came over, they decided to call more cops on the scene and they all discussed amongst themselves and decided that I had hit my car elsewhere and parked my car there and now I was trying to do a police report to get insurance to pay...I was 19 at that time.

As a result, my trust in the police was skeptical for many years, absolutely hate the St. Louis area police.

but moving to Wyoming and dealing with police officers here and surrounding states, most of the trust has been restored.

 

[AKhan87]

Two people made an illegal left turn without signaling and hit my car. The cops get out there half an hour later and take the word out of two convicted felons in the other car that I was the one that made the illegal turn. A right turn.

The police wrote me a ticket citing the wrong law (illegal LEFT turn) while drawing up a diagram and incident report clearly showing me making a right turn.

Even though the other driver didn't have a license with him or proof of car insurance, they just got some lady on the phone with the cop that said that she was the driver's mother. Then they let him go without citing him. The passenger made a claim of a "neck injury" and was taken to the hospital while the fire department scanned my insurance card. (It was a 2-3 mph collision at an angle that bent some plastic and broke my headlamp.)

I talked to the parole department up in Wisconsin and sent the passenger's parole officer the police statement from Illinois showing that the parolee (the passenger in the other car, who was a child abuser who participated in a prison riot) was in Illinois without permission, and they put a warrant out for his arrest and he fled to Mississippi. Neither one of them showed up on my court date, and the judge threw out the ticket because there were no witnesses and the police couldn't testify against me because they didn't see anything, and there were body cameras videos (state law) showing that I didn't make any guilty statements).

They never filed a claim against my car insurance, and eventually the statute of limitations on civil suits expired a couple years later.

Pleading guilty to a traffic ticket (which includes paying it and dropping it in the mail) that involved a car accident gives the other person evidence in a lawsuit but if you're found guilty of the traffic ticket, that's not evidence (under Illinois trial rules anyway), so you have to go to traffic court even if you lose and have to pay the ticket.

Thankfully, mine got thrown out, so no car insurance increase.

This reminds me of my most recent incident with the Addison, IL police, not a big fan of them.

An illegal immigrant (as cops told me after they processed him) rear-ended my car at a stop light at 1:30 am with ZERO traffic and the other lane being empty.

I saw the accident about to take place in my rearview mirror and even moved a decent amount forward to prevent as much damage as possible. I immediately called the police, and that person pulled to the side of me and kept waving a Statefarm insurance envelope, I could see my his face that he was hammered. I continued with my phone call and when he saw that, he ran (to my understanding, this is a Hit & Run), and I went after him and gave 911 complete details of all our turns, about 10 police cars came and arrested him.

They charged him with DUI but not a HIT & RUN, and surprise surprise, he didn't have any insurance...I called the police officers to understand why they didn't charge him with a Hit & Run and never got a reply. Long story short, I lost my faith in Illinois police.

 

[BaronHK]

This reminds me of my most recent incident with the Addison, IL police, not a big fan of them.

An illegal immigrant (as cops told me after they processed him) rear-ended my car at a stop light at 1:30 am with ZERO traffic and the other lane being empty.

I saw the accident about to take place in my rearview mirror and even moved a decent amount forward to prevent as much damage as possible. I immediately called the police, and that person pulled to the side of me and kept waving a Statefarm insurance envelope, I could see my his face that he was hammered. I continued with my phone call and when he saw that, he ran (to my understanding, this is a Hit & Run), and I went after him and gave 911 complete details of all our turns, about 10 police cars came and arrested him.

They charged him with DUI but not a HIT & RUN, and surprise surprise, he didn't have any insurance...I called the police officers to understand why they didn't charge him with a Hit & Run and never got a reply. Long story short, I lost my faith in Illinois police.

Need to get uninsured motorist bodily injury and property damage if your collision insurance doesn't cover it.

It's a real shame that people who try to conduct our lives legitimately have to pay more for insurance and car repairs while criminals just do whatever they like and nobody stops them but there's nothing new there I guess.

 

[Cropduster172]

I was a cop. I got pulled over occasionally for speeding. Was even drinking beer heading down the Garden State Parkway...beer that had been confiscated from minors at the time and got pulled over. I never got a ticket.
Strange, eh?

 

[PontiacHO]

I got a ticket for improper equipment ( loud mufflers ) in my 66 Chevelle SS396 L34 in 1969. I told the officer if he would follow me to the Chevy dealer a few blocks away they would confirm the mufflers were stock. Though the 550 Lift Crane cam had to idle at 900 rpm’s it did thump as if it had after market mufflers and the capped Hooker headers made it sound even louder than stock but technically it did have stock mufflers. He refused and wrote me a ticket and when I went to court the judge threw it out. From that day on he often shadowed me and I was a marked 17 year old for the rest of the summer of 69. If I could relive one year of my life …..it would be 1969!

Love that! We used to cut the engine and coast when we could when the police were around. Our header mufflers were just to appear as mufflers… Were you in North Carolina then? I grew up between Charlotte and Belmont.

 

[shortyb]

Never wrote silly tickets because it was a waste of time and frankly, they were just silly. I was compelled to write a citation for crossing center line on a woman that made a wide right turn from an intersection. She crossed into the oncoming lane and several cars had to escape to the shoulder. I pulled her over with the intent of giving a warning, but she decided to argue vehemently and beret me about stopping her. Well, so much for a warning. In court, I intended to have the ticket dismissed since having to come to court I felt drove home the point of her carelessness. Nope. She pled not guilty and proceeded to pitch a fit with the judge. The judge asked to see video of the infraction (which was captured on the in-car) and then saw her tantrum on my body-cam. He found her guilty (without me having to say a word) and gave her the full fine and 4 points. Clearly, at this point, she had spiraled into a state that earned her a trip to jail for contempt of court. On the way out, she asked the court to re-imburse her for missed wages from work that day because she had to come to court. Wow .

 

[PF52]

Not a ticket, but I got a written warning for using a cell phone while driving. In reality, my phone was at home the whole time and the cop saw me looking down at the radio display to see the name of the song that was on. I didn't realize immediately that that must've been what he saw, because it wasn't until later I realized he saw me when I was looking at the radio. He asked to see my phone, and when I said it was at home on the kitchen counter he just got angrier and angrier.

I suppose I should make my annual mention of being "profiled" in Southgate Michigan and treated to a 45-minute search of my car by the drug-sniffing dog, and threats of bodily harm to be administered right there on the side of the road if the dog found anything that made me a liar..... But there were no drugs and the dog found nothing, so there were no roadside beatings and no tickets issued. So I won't mention the whole affair.

 

[shortyb]

They charged him with DUI but not a HIT & RUN, and surprise surprise, he didn't have any insurance...I called the police officers to understand why they didn't charge him with a Hit & Run and never got a reply. Long story short, I lost my faith in Illinois police.

In SC, other charges while the driver is DUI, get covered as "lesser, included offenses". Which means that DUI takes precedence since the other things happen because the driver is intoxicated, including those for the reason to stop. Also, if say the intoxicated driver is charged with speeding too, and this charge is dismissed/thrown out, it could affect the adjudication of the DUI since the initial reason for the stop was speeding, thus the stop could be viewed as invalid. Illinois may be similar.