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Oops, new guy.

That might do it right there.

I also suspect that at times the good officer's vision is not what it is supposed to be and he has to get that close to read your plate.

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A bunch of years ago, along the Rt 6 next to the Cape Cod Canal, I was doing some sight seeing on that scenic highway and was going from one overlook to another to get a better shot of the vista I was trying to get a picture of (the Sagamore Bridge). As I pulled out of one, they were about a quarter mile apart, my car started giving me problems and would not get up to speed. When the towing service got me to the garage they decided I had had a vapor lock, probably from stopping the car for just a short period of time and then starting it back up again - I was only at the first stop for just over a minute. By the time I was towed to the garage, the car started just fine - one of the few times I can think of being thankful for my AAA membership.

As I went from the one vista to the other, at about 30mph or less, a whole line of cars went by me in the passing lane, including a state trooper. As I got to the next vista I was unable to even keep the car running, so I just coasted into a parking space. As I got out of the car and raised the hood I started noticing a horn and siren blowing, and I looked op to see this troop car at the other end of the vista with a car he had apparently stopped, about 500 feet away, and the trooper was waving and yelling at me.

Unable to start my car, I walked up to the trooper, who continued to shout and wave the whole time I was trying to get my car started, and boy was he steamed by now. He lectured me about refusing a lawful order, and how he clocked me at more than 60mph a way back, and he was going to . . . and why didn't I bring my car up here because not doing so was very suspicious. Eventually he ticketed the other guy and then drove down and looked through my car and listened while I tried to get it started. He made me walk back down, while he drove.

At first I just tried to explain that I couldn't possibly have been doing 60 because I had just pulled out of the previous overlook and that the car had stalled during that brief run and now I couldn't start it, etc.

Eventually he gave me a warning, but the confrontation certainly spoiled my little jaunt up to the Cape.

Maybe part of what convinced him was that I offered to introduce my film to a court, unprocessed, as proof that I had just been at the previous vista, and the sun angle and barges in the canal would show just what time of day I took the picture, even if it didn't have a date stamp, and the pictures of my cousin (far enough away to kiss, actually my third cousin's daughter, my age) in Mattapoissett, MA that afternoon would even establish which day. I was ready to meet him in court.

I remain certain that he mistook my car for another that he saw, or maybe he didn't like sailors, I was in uniform.

What really frosted my cupcakes was that he wouldn't radio HQ to get AAA for me, I had to walk and find a pay phone. It was too late that evening when I left the garage to get to the Cape and back, so I skipped the trip and just went back to my cousins' house to spend the night, and back to my ship the next day.