Police Paranoia

[Dadeo]

So I'm walking down the street and I see a police car parked on the other side, he looks over and I wave hello. Suddenly lights and siren and dude whips a u-turn and pulls up beside me.

Cop: Did you just give me the finger!?
Me: What? No, I waved hi.
Cop: WHY?
Me: I thought you were Joe X.
Cop: And why would you think that!?
Me: Because you look like him.
Cop: I look like this Joe guy. What makes you think that?
Me: Because he's a cop, he's in your division, and you were parked outside his house.
Cop: - pauses - Oh, *Sergeant* X?
Me: Yeah.
Cop: I get that a lot.

Then he just drives off.

Me:

Posted in Roadkill because it happened on the road but feel free to move it.

[Sandman]

Whoops.... someone started to mouth off to the wrong person... namely someone who knows his boss personally.

[csquared]

I have to wonder what this guy was doing if he was looking at you and not able to tell a hand wave from a bird.

If you are friends of Sergeant X, you may want to let him know about this incident. It might save your municipality a lot of money in legal and settlement fees.

[Pixilated]

And heaven help anybody who just waved to him because they saw a police car and thought, "Wow, they've got a tough job; I'll just smile and wave in the hopes it makes his day better!"

[dalesys]

Honed that hair-trigger a little too much, sonny?

[MoonCat]

Police academy standards have dropped quite a bit, I take it...

[Captain Trips]

And his sergeant may want to know this guy was lurking out side his house.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And you have a nice day too, Officer Friendly.

[Dips]

We had to delete a few posts from here for fratching.

If you want to discuss the legality of the situation, generalize about police officers and their training and whether certain people should be in authority, please start a thread there.

The URL is www.fratching.com

[Andara Bledin]

I think I'd mention it to Joe X, myself.

After all, it's a funny story when a guy can't figure out that Joe X and Sergeant X are the same person, particularly when he's parked in front of Mr. X's house.

^-.-^

[PepperElf]

Whoops.... someone started to mouth off to the wrong person... namely someone who knows his boss personally.

good point.

Around here at least one of my neighbors is a cop. It's nothing weird to just wave "hi" if I see him driving home while I'm walking the dog.

Dunno what Neighbor Cop looks like though, other than basics, oh and his car number.

Probably confused Other Cop one day when I saw him driving through. Was walking the dog and waved "hi" thinking it was Neighbor Cop. Other Cop didn't do anything though, just went back to another area and then out the side exit.



Tho... are you going to tell Officer Joe about the other Officer? The one who tried jumping the gun?

[Dadeo]

I never really considered telling Joe - it happened, it's finished.

It's not unusual for an officer to pull over to check something on his computer, do paperwork or take a phone call. Joe's place is on a major street just a few blocks from the station, so it's conceivable he just happened to stop there.

I've dealt with lots of police officers and, just as in any profession, there are nice ones (which reminds me of another encounter that I'll post later) and there are douchebags. Sadly, this was not the worst officer I've come across.