Resume Booster

Remember this post?

I thought I would update you on this bizarre attraction cops have for Ryan.

Believe it or not, since that post was written, Ryan has had about 3 more cop encounters. And he rarely ever speeds.They just love him!

A couple months ago, Ryan and I were driving to my parents house. We had just made a left turn, when I saw a pair of headlights tailgating us. I think tailgaters are really annoying and for some reason, this made me think of police officers.

Me: That guy is on your bumper. So annoying! I hate it when people do that. Do you think police officers tailgate people so they'll speed up just to pull the poor person over?"

Ryan: "I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised."

That's when I saw a light reflect off the top of the car. A cop car.

Me: "Well, you better not speed because that's a cop behind us.

Ryan: "What! I thought this was a hypothetical situation!"

Me: "Me too."

Well, Ryan made sure to go the speed limit. However, the cop was following us every turn we made. We got to a 2 lane road and I told Ryan to change lanes and let the cop pass us. He only followed us closer.

I'm pretty sure Ryan was sweating. He was concentrating on abiding every little traffic law known to man (and woman).

Me: "Wouldn't it be funny if he pulled you over?"

Ryan: "No."

Me: "Don't worry. He'd have no reason to."

That's when we saw the lights flash behind us.

WHAT?!?

We didn't do anything wrong! He couldn't be pulling us over! I could hear my heartbeat in my ears along with the tune of Elmo's World, thanks to Jackson's mini dvd player. Jackson was happily watching a show in the back of the car oblivious to the situation.

We pulled over and the officer approached our car, shining his flashlight directly in our eyes.

I waited for him to say, "Do you know why I pulled you over?" so Ryan could say NO! but....that question never came.

"Liscense and registration please."

Long story short, the officer informed us that our registration had been cancelled a month earlier.

WHAT?!?

We had no idea how or why it had been cancelled. I let the officer know that and hoped he would let us off with a warning since we were clueless we were breaking the law. Plus we had a baby in the back of the car that watches ELMO!! (Haha, it didn't help). Ryan never gets warnings. He ended up with a ticket.

The police officer kindly told us to go to court. "It helps!" he responded cheerfully. "You folks have a great night!"

I wanted to throw the ticket in his face. Okay, not really, but I was upset. Ryan cannot catch a break. He was pretty sullen. I told him to go to court and maybe they would write the ticket off. He kind of laughed and said they never do that, but maybe they would reduce the charge? However, it was during school and Ryan couldn't afford missing classes to show up in court.

The next day, I called Utah's registration place to ask why our registration had been cancelled. The helpful receptionist was not surprised at all.

"Oh yeah! That happens all the time! We have a third company business that checks to see if people sell their cars or if the car is registered in another state. Sometimes they make mistakes and accidentally cancel registrations that aren't supposed to be cancelled!"

Huh. Interesting.

So basically his was not our fault at all! Plus, we were never notified of the cancellation, so we couldn't have done anything about it.

Ryan had told me that he would take care of the ticket and that I wouldn't need to worry about it. Weeks passed and Ryan was pretty busy. The night before the court date, the day before we needed to pay the ticket, I couldn't wait any longer. I grabbed the ticket. There on the page it said that it was REQUIRED for Ryan to go to court. Usually it's not, so I was really confused. It said if he failed to show up in court, there would be a warrant for his arrest.

I typed the ticket number in the computer anyways to see if we could just pay it...maybe I had misread the ticket. The computer processed my request and there it showed the cost of the ticket.

A whopping 800 dollars.

WHAT?!?

I had thought maybe $200 tops...but $800?? And sure enough, Ryan HAD to go to court. He was not a happy camper and was stressing out about missing class.

Fortunetly, court went well. Out of all the people there, Ryan and one other guy got their tickets written off. Ryan talked to the judge and the judge was really excited to find out that Ryan went to law school. They chatted and the judge even said, "I have never heard of this happening before! Usually a revoked registration is due to criminal activity, drug dealing, that kind of thing. It is a very serious thing. Actually, protocol is that the police officer should have arrested you on the spot. He probably didn't because your wife and child were in the car with you."

SO ELMO DID HELP!!! :)

Could you imagine Ryan getting arrested? I guess it would have made a better story, but then he would have had to explain why he had been arrested on all his future job resumes. *Phew*

I was thankful we didn't have to pay the $800.

Later, Ryan told his professor why he missed class that day, and she exclaimed, "You won your first case! You can now say on your resume that you have won 100% of your cases!"

Who knew that this hectic experience would be a resume booster?

Poor Ryan. Being attractive to cops is not fun, but at least he has good stories to tell!