cell phone vigilantes

Tom, it's the young guns like you recklessly driving that give us Fcar drivers a bad image

Either that or you're in complete denial over Ferrari's lack of pace and lowly 10 points so far this year and were speeding!

Kenny K.

 

Yep, I have had it happen to me. Blow it off and don't sweat it.

Sit back, relax, and be thankful that your world is not so devoid of happiness that attempting to ruin someone's day is your only solace.

 

Yeah that is the small town back roads mentality......."I'll show him". That can happen anywhere, but mainly on backroads where grandma and grandpa live.

I wouldn't worry about it, and it isn't like the cop can do anything about it.

 

I'd also add that slow drivers (going 10 mph or more under the speed limit) are a huge risk, because they cause a far larger number of drivers to make lane changes and passing maneuvers like you described. Sooo, if someone were to get a warning I would think it should be Ms. Minivan.

I'm looking forward to getting my first Ferrari, but also dreading some of this finger wagging the first time I pass someone.

J

 

Tom S.,

Yeah, it has happened to me TWICE. For the life of me, I can't understand why a cop would even respond to "hear-say", as they can't prove anything. For the cop, well... it just gives him/her another opportunity to show their "force" (meaning ego problem), and the end result is that we have less than zero respect for law enforcement.

Perhaps next time,we should use our cell phone and call the cops when someone is going too slow, or hogging the left lane, or eating a Big Mac and reading the newspaper in their SUV.

I don't really think it's a small town effect, as some people think they are some sort of a sworn-in deputy, and these types of people are all over the place and growing in numbers as well.

In a certain respect, we are victims of our own technology, and remember that because of mandated "911" access, most cell phones have GPS chips embedded.

However, shake it off, as you did nothing wrong, and chalk it up to zealous law enforcement.

 

It happens a lot on the back roads near me. All dem Bubbas in der pickemup trucks have got one of dem cell phones, and when you go whizzing by, they call up der cousin Jim-Bob, who happens to be a deputy sherriff, to be on the look out for one of dem der furring cars.

Serioursly, it has gotten to the point where it pays to run only early in the morning and it small groups. Plus, plan your run to where you don't double back on any part.

Dr "Looking over my shoulder" Who

 

I'm a police officer and agree with you 100%. Slower drivers are somtimes more of a risk. But about the phone call it happens all the time We are constantly being given lookouts for "reckless" driving from jackass peolpe who don't just drive and mind there business. I'd say 95% are bullsh$t calls.

 

It doesn't help that our society has become so unfriendly that people call the police on each other for absolutely nothing. I had a neighbor call the police on me once because my dog was barking at 2 in the afternoon. I called the neighbor and asked them why they couldn't be bothered to call ME and say something about it. Basically, people are wusses. It's easier to "tattle" to the police than deal with conflict like a grown up. I'm sure the police are delighted to have to deal with people like this every day. But it only makes it worse when the police actually take this kind of thing seriously, rather than telling the caller to get a life.

I have a friend who was out walking around his own neighborhood last week, knocking on his neighbors doors trying to find the owner of a lost item that he found in his yard. Someone called the cops, saying a strange man was "knocking on doors." The police showed up and told my friend that he shouldn't be doing that. He explained what he was doing, expecting the cop to understand that nothing nefarious was going on. The cop told him to stop and go home. He was like "Knocking on doors is illegal? Should I call the cops every time a door to door salesman or a born again knocks on my front door?" The cop got pissed and actually told him to go home and stop knocking on doors IN HIS OWN NEIGHBORHOOD! Talk about stupid. This is what our society has come to. We can't even go to the neighbor's house without someone getting their panties in a bind. So because of some little old lady's insecurity, people can't leave their own property for fear someone will call the cops.

We have a playground in our neighborhood. The speed limit is 20. If I go by at 20 in my Toyota, nobody looks up. If I go by at 15 in the Ferrari, three people tell me to slow down! Red cars with a loud exhaust are going to get you in trouble! Soccer moms in SUVs go past that playground at 45 every single day.

A lady in a white minivan can go 80 MPH all day long and not get busted. Try that in a red 308.

Sorry....random ramblings about the crappiness of people these days.

Birdman

 

Oh I forgot this one.

The one time I did call the police on my cell phone, it was to report a rather serious accident that had just happened, and no police were at the scene. It was on a big highway. I called the state police and reported it. I got this:

"Yeah, we know about it." CLICK. Hung up on me. No thank you, no goodbye.

That is the last time I report an accident. Rude b@stards! I'm sure the police are busy, but they should never be too busy to take 3 seconds to be polite. These are people brought up by parents with no manners.

Birdman

 

LOL that's true. I go 35 in my Accord on my street. In the lotus I'm ALWAYS going 25 and people tell me to slow down. Of course, 25 in first gear is not the quietest way to go...

Once I was balancing my carbs; I had a flat spot at 2000 RPMs. I did a couple launches in 1st at the end of my street. No kids around and I probably wasn't much over 20 MPH when I let off. A week later my wife tells me she had "calls" about me driving recklessly on our street! Huh? Obviously it was the noise, not the speed.

Ken

 

I SO much can relate to this - i was a "slow" car and got hit.
Issue is - i was doing 55 (speed limit) in a right lane on a highway - letting my car to warm up.

 

EXACTLY! And as for 'call aheads'... It seems most pople are clueless as to REAL forward motion yet if the car sounds fast, it must be breaking the law. Had someone call on me once and made ABSURD claims but the local small town ego-cop would not let it rest. In the end my lawyer took care of the mess in court, but geeeze, some officers are great guys while others seem to have something less than one would hope.

Enjoy the Drive,

Steven R. Rochlin

 

Here in NJ, there used to be signs all over the place that for "#77" - call it to report "aggressive" drivers. I was so appalled by it; NJ was actually ENCOURAGING people to call in on other drivers. Forget the fact that the soccer mom picking up her cell phone to make the call is probably more dangerous than whoever she's reporting... how could they ever prove anything? Intimidation, ratting out your fellow citizens... too gestapo-like for me.

I don't know if #77 is still around - the signs have all but disappeared. I do know that when it was started, they were getting hundreds of calls a day.

 

A bunch of A-holes on the 101 south of San Francisco called in and reported the Gum Ball Rallyers back in I believe '02 or 03. A bunch of them got pulled over. Apparently the panicked soccer moms had all called 911.

 

Agreed. I almost took surface streets home last night (or rather, this morning) at 1:00AM after terrorizing two of the local freeways. I spotted a chopper in the air after I started to double back. Luckily, it wasn't me (i mean, my evil twin) but a liquor store robbery adjacent to the freeway had just transitioned from that generated all the buzz. I was a teensy bit paranoid though. I spent the next few miles hiding amongst what little truck traffic I could find before resuming the Italian tune up.

 

It was probably a case of Jealousy. One of those

"oh he has a Ferrari and he thinks he can do that.........Well, I THINK NOT!"

and then calls the cops.

 

I've had that happen to me as well. Drive a 348 in the rural midwest like I used to and you'd get calls all the time too.

Let's see... my neighbors once called the Police because I was doing "burnouts" outside of my house. Bear in mind my apt was on a CONCRETE street. So the Police come running (I was washing the car in the driveway) and they say they had complaints I was doing burnouts. "Officer I wasn't doing burnouts" "Well we got a report that you were driving recklessly and spinning your tires right here" "Well Officer, if I had been doing burnouts, don't you think there would be some tire marks on the concrete?"

That was the end of that. They used to pull me over religiously tho.. Once I had to go to Taylorville, IL from the St Louis area.. like an idiot I took the 348.. had to pass through like 8 small towns off of the interstate, got pulled over a total of 3 times I think.

 

Move to a town that has no cell phone service because of the mountains like me, and you will not have to worry about mini-van mom's turing you in!

 

It won't help with the 2 lane country road issue but somebody in the Florida legislature has his head screwed on correctly.... the following excerpted from a Florida news paper.

"The House on Thursday approved a measure that would allow police to ticket drivers who are moving too slowly and blocking traffic in the fast lane. Rep. Ken Sorensen, R-Key Largo, said he sponsored the bill to reduce road rage among motorists who are forced to weave around slow-moving left-lane drivers. The bill (HB 157) would allow police to issue a $60 fine and four points against the license of someone who is blocking traffic in the left lane, even if they are driving the speed limit. "This bill has nothing to do with speed," Sorensen said. "It used to be a courtesy to move over to the right." The bill is endorsed by the Florida Highway Patrol and the Police Benevolent Association because it would allow police another way to manage traffic flow.

This will allow officers like 288ferrri to do something about the problem! It's about time.

 

This pisses me off a lot. It happened last week to me, cop never pulled me over, but gave me the roll down the window and serious look down as he rolled up to the light (one of two in my town) next to me.

I’m cruising down 17S in the middle lane because I am about take my exit in like a half mile. A car pulls out of the Dunkin Donuts, and right behind some fat ass soccer mom in a caravan comes whipping out, but she decides to go straight to the middle lane to pass this normal person who is accelerating on the shoulder / slow lane. Mind you it’s like 2pm, so there’s no traffic. So I stand on the brakes to not rear end this ****** bag who’s now in the middle lane with her caravan throttled to the floor. Lo and behold, donut consuming, middle age hag is taking my exit. One of the few really nice exit ramps around here, has a long hairpin, that doubles back into a ~500ft straight before getting to at 80d turn onto the overpass… perfect for 2nd gear oversteer and flat out on the straight. But I will have none of that because fat ass is doing like 15mph around the turns, despite the fact that she is man enough to cut straight out into the middle lane, in front of someone (me), on the highway. So now I’m a bit annoyed. We go take the overpass and I’m like whatever, just chilling behind her because there are like 4 ways to go, what are the chances she is going the same was as me (25%, I know). Sure enough, she starts going towards the yield-for-right-turn only that goes to the main road in my town. The main road in my town has a hairpin, like 10 sweepers, slow and fast. So I’m like F this, she cut me off, she ruined my exit ramp grand prix, and she is a mega *****. After the right only turn off it opens up into two lanes for like ¾ mile. So I drop it in 2nd, and time it that as soon as she gets out of the turn I’m passing her in a four wheel drift going like 50 (she’s doing like 20). I finished the pass where it’s two lanes and went off. Like a mile up the road she catches up because I’m waiting for someone to turn onto a side road, and I look in my rearview and sure as **** she whips out the cell phone and starts giving me the finger (nice thing for a ~40yr old woman to do). There are two cops in my town on at a time, so having one pull up and start staring at me was clearly a result of she hag. I cycle a lot and used to be on rescue, so most of the cops know me / see me all the time. I just like wtf, is this Alice in Wonderland, she cuts me off on the highway, drives like a horse’s ass, and I’m getting told on.

Granted there was one time where I was doing 40, in a 40, going around a blind curve in front of the locak park (on the same main road) when yokel in a beat up pickup decides to pass me and almost kills someone coming the other way because it was like 5:30 rush hour… thought about calling the cops but never did. I was in the jeep so I couldn’t accelerate quick enough to keep him out, wasn’t expecting a pass, especially there. Granted if I did keep him out he almost would have surely head on’d a car. How do these people get their licenses?

 

there was a study conducted which concluded reaction times for those on cell phones is actually slower than for those driving under the influence. and the former is legal! how absurd.

 

It happened to my Dad. He and my Mom were driving home in their Yukon at night a couple of years ago. Something dropped on the floor, he bent down to pick it up, and went two wheels (barely) over the line. They were about a mile from their place and no one was coming from the other direction, Some guy following him called the cops and then followed him all the way back to their condo and reported their address. A couple of minutes later, a cop rolls up in their driveway. My Dad was still unloading something out of the truck, the cop walked up to him and told him what happened and that the guy that followed him reported him as DUI.

I told him that if it was me, I would have gotten the name of the guy that followed him (I'm sure that they have to give a name and and address to make a report) and either reported him to the cops for harrassment or filed a civil suit against him. I think the guy was way out of line following him home. It still makes me mad thinking about it. And it didn't even happen to me.

My Dad had not had a drink that night. Given the circumstances, I wonder what the law would say if the cop had asked for a brethalyzer test. Since my Dad was back on his property, wouldn't the cop have needed a search warrant in order to do that? The truck was parked in the garage by the time the cop got there, it was no longer a traffic stop.

 

I can attest to that. The Stereotype of the soccer mom in an SUV has been mentioned often and I can attest to it from personal experience. I was driving my new GTO (made in Australia not Italy, darn) in rush hour traffic and was stopped at a light. This is 3 lanes of traffic stopped. I’d been sitting there for many seconds when I got hit from behind. I looked in my mirror and there she was in her Grand Cherokee with the phone to her ear and her mouth and eyes wide open in surprise. The other 2 lanes had already backed up and stopped. There was the long delay in my lane because she had been going slower than everyone else (a common issue with cell phone use). Then she hopped out and looked at my car and complimented me on having such a ‘strong’ car that had no damage! She was unhappy that I said it was damaged and we needed to exchange license and insurance info. The damage turned out to be over $1,000 and in the course of trying to get her to contact her insurance company I found that this wasn’t the first time! I now cringe at the sight of women in SUVs talking on the phone which means the cringe is almost a permanent position because they are EVERYWHERE!