Every month or so, if it's a full moon out, and a weeknight, I like to go for a moonlight drive. This involves taking an hour cruise up north in upstate NY, around midnight or later, and taking the taconic back down south, where there are no cars and no streetlights, and usually, no cops. It's nice to kill the lights and have enough light to drive by. I do this carefully, of course.
So this past monday night was overcast, but I had an afternoon nap and still couldn't sleep at 12, so I went and hoped it would be clearer on my way up north. On my way through a series of small towns, I reach a part where it gets dark (as in less streetlights), and I see a pair of headlights behind me, rights as I start to suspect it could be a cop car, the rollers come on. Crap, I guess I was going like 47 in a 30, but i was just in a 40, which was 55 before that. I am in no rush, I just didn't slow down enough. The cop is in good spirits for 1AM, greeting me by saying "good morning!" And I am jovial yet respectful with him. I know this must seem suspicious, me driving in an emtpy town this late at night. So he runs my liscence and registration, and after like a 10 min wait, I'm sure he's gonna give me a ticket. He comes back, with no ticket, but a notepad, and my liscense and reg. he asks me for my SSN, which I give him, then he asks me if I've ever been to Michigan. I tell him no, I grew up in new england, moved to NY, and the closest I ever got to michigan was probably Toronto. He lets me go, even though my car for some reason was smelling of gas, which he was concerned about, but I did just gas up.
Afterwards, I realized those were some strange questions. Michigan? My car, granted is used, with one previous owner. But why did he want my SSN? Must be some strange procedure for questioning suspicios people in the middle of the night. It was too cloudy to kill the lights on the way home and enjoy the moonlight drive, so I kill 2 hours of a mellow cruise wondering what the heck the cop was asking me this stuff for. Any idea?
CLIFFS:
1) I go for a late moonlight drive, cop pulls me over for 47 in a 30
2) Doesn't give me a ticket, asks me strange questions
3) I go home, no chance to enjoy the moonlight.
So this past monday night was overcast, but I had an afternoon nap and still couldn't sleep at 12, so I went and hoped it would be clearer on my way up north. On my way through a series of small towns, I reach a part where it gets dark (as in less streetlights), and I see a pair of headlights behind me, rights as I start to suspect it could be a cop car, the rollers come on. Crap, I guess I was going like 47 in a 30, but i was just in a 40, which was 55 before that. I am in no rush, I just didn't slow down enough. The cop is in good spirits for 1AM, greeting me by saying "good morning!" And I am jovial yet respectful with him. I know this must seem suspicious, me driving in an emtpy town this late at night. So he runs my liscence and registration, and after like a 10 min wait, I'm sure he's gonna give me a ticket. He comes back, with no ticket, but a notepad, and my liscense and reg. he asks me for my SSN, which I give him, then he asks me if I've ever been to Michigan. I tell him no, I grew up in new england, moved to NY, and the closest I ever got to michigan was probably Toronto. He lets me go, even though my car for some reason was smelling of gas, which he was concerned about, but I did just gas up.
Afterwards, I realized those were some strange questions. Michigan? My car, granted is used, with one previous owner. But why did he want my SSN? Must be some strange procedure for questioning suspicios people in the middle of the night. It was too cloudy to kill the lights on the way home and enjoy the moonlight drive, so I kill 2 hours of a mellow cruise wondering what the heck the cop was asking me this stuff for. Any idea?
CLIFFS:
1) I go for a late moonlight drive, cop pulls me over for 47 in a 30
2) Doesn't give me a ticket, asks me strange questions
3) I go home, no chance to enjoy the moonlight.
