So me and my friend were out mudding yesterday, nothing extreme, just 2 small puddles. Well after making one of our passes, we see a cop getting out of his car. long story short we were expecting a warning or being charged with trespassing, instead we got RECKLESS driving which where i am is enough to get my license revoked and $420 fine. we werent throwing rocks or anything destructive, nothing dangerous. There were 2 cops one was really nice, the other cop of course who wrote the ticket, seemed to have a hard *** attitude and wouldnt even smile. what do you guys think about this?

 

I got a wreckless driving ticket for hitting an unavoidable water puddle in the mall parkin lot a couple years back. If you have a clean driving record you might be able to get it dropped and do some community service or somethin. Ask your dad who you should talk to about doing this.

This was the same cop that give me a ticket for being in the 15 minute food parking spot for 22 minutes so that helped out my case alot when I was trying to get the wreckless driving charge erased from my record.

 

where were you mudriding at? alot depends on where you were and who the property belongs to. reckless driving was the most severe thing they could give you without having to bring you in, i will guarantee you that they gave you that ticket b/c the other option is trespassing or vandalism, both of which have also been used many times against people offroading without permission; however both of those charges require an arrest and thats a ton of paperwork that most cops dont want to fool with when they can just write you a big ticket and be on their way, its just another traffic citation in the book at that point

 

He probably dives a toyota and had truck envy.

 

Sounds like you were doing something you shouldn't and got busted. Hopefully you learned a lesson. As for a nice cop and a hard ***... haven't you ever seen good cop/bad cop on TV?

 

And what makes you so quick to side with an officer you don't even know? Some of them are fresh out of the academy for the first 15 years of their career and some may never outgrow it. I am labeling many to be ego-driven lawmen on a powertrip, definitely not all or even the majority but MANY. I'll give the benefit of the doubt as to you just being severely sheltered and/or your runins with the law were 100% textbook. Good people are tough to find yet if you wear a badge you automatically carry the simple folk's respect. Give me a break. I guess I would be a terrible officer in your eyes as I would have let a couple young teens go for playing in the mud, especially if no property was damaged. I think guys like you would put my confidence into overdrive telling me everything I do is correct, and I'd too probably become a loser like those giving blind compliments.

Bryndon, this is not directed towards you exactly as you may have meant something different but more towards those who constantly side with police. I've seen some pretty foul decisions with my close family being in law enforcement.

 

captain Morgan (which I drank some lastnight yummm) you got a ticket for driving thru a dang puddle?????

 

I have a lot of cops as friends, and yes, some do have an ego issue.

My experience is that few cops will write you when you not doing anything wrong. Even the one that wrote me for 3 miles over!!! I was only ever written once for something that was questionable.

Cops are supposed to enforce the law. If you don't break it, you are not likely to get written - pretty simple. They are not judge, jury, or executioner. If it's a bad ticket, take it to court. But, if it was trespassing (likely or he would have posted "we were on my buddy's land...") he will lose.

Ever notice that almost every post post about getting a ticket is from someone that was breaking the law?

 

Darn cops! How dare they do their job!

 

Just thought about one other thing... most cops are much more gentle if your record is clean. The worse the record, the less likely to cut you a break. Based on the above quote, sounds like the record is very messy.

I learned a long time ago that I can find better ways to spend my hard earned cash than send it to the government... now if I can teach my wife that same thing...

 

Umm....I didn't think they could write you a ticket on private property. Trespassing and vandalizing is one thing, but wreckless is something different. I've lived in OH, FL, and AZ and in all 3 states they haven't been able to cite you for a moving violation if it happens in a parking lot, driveway or miscellaneous private land.

 

Here's a good one..

Can a cop say in NY give me a ticket for reckless driving in my own yard/field? Or in a friend's yard with permission from land owner? Or cite me with some other ticket/fine while off the road on permissioned property?

 

I HIGHLY doubt it

 

nope

 

Cool...

I was thinking... I noticed that from your post, the "cops" assumed that it was tresspassing... how do they even know if the landowner let you screw around on his property?! Did you ever think about finding out who the owner of that land is an asking them if it was ok?!

The reason I am saying this is because a friend of mine went offroading, and he got ticketed by the cops... after doing a little bit of researching, he found the owner of the land, stopped by his house, and knocked on the front door. He told the owner what happened, and believe it or not, the owner laughed and said it was ok and he wrote it up on a piece of paper, and signed it... not to mention he was invited in for dinner!

To make a long story short, he brought the piece of paper into court, and the charges/fines got dropped instantly... and he got a free meal out of it.