Jump to the warning

I'm on my way to see The Bone Collector with Tom Schmidt-Makino, Dave Dash and Scott Hughes, and some others. Tom had already made arrangements for getting to the theater, but I had to go and pick up Dave and Scott from Allen Hall, so I left about 11:15 so we'd be there early enough to get tickets and seats. I'm driving along as usual, and apparently "run a stop sign". Following this, there is another stop sign just before I pull into Allen Hall's parking lot, but a car (later determined to be Julie Schwartz's) was turning right and I wanted to go straight, so I swerved around it and pulled to a stop at that stop sign.

As I enter Allen Hall's front pickup area, all of a sudden I see these cop lights go on, and the officer is right behind me. So I pull to a stop and she turns on the super-bright spotlight which is hitting my rear-view mirror in just the right place to completely blind me. The officer came up to the car and began questioning me (some of this is paraphrased, cause I can't remember exact words):

Officer: "You completely ran a stop sign back there, did you know that?"
Me: "No, I didn't realize that, I thought I came to a stop."
Officer: "You were going way too fast to have been able to stop fully."
Me: "Allright, I'm sorry officer, I thought I stopped though."
Officer: "How fast do you think you were going?"
Me: "I dunno, under 5 mph though. I'm sorry, I really thought I stopped, but I'm not gonna argue with you."

This is the point in the conversation where the officer decided to try and get to know me a little better, first by guessing my occupation.

Officer: "Are you a pizza deliverer?"
Me: "Uhhh... no."
Officer: "Oh, ... are you in a hurry?"
Me: "No, not really."
Officer: "Where do you live?"
Me: <supplied apartment address here>
Officer: "So what are you doing here, just visiting friends?"
Me: "Actually, I was just picking them up to go see a movie."

At this point I notice Dave and Scott just kinda standing back towards the doors of Allen, looking away, pretending to in no way know who the hell I am.

Officer: "Can I see your driver's license and insurance?"
Me: <hands those things to her>
Officer: "OK, I'm gonna go back to my car, and if the license comes up valid, I'm going to give you a written warning."
Me: "OK, thanks. Again, I'm very sorry."

So now the officer heads back to the car for like 10 minutes, doing who knows what, while I'm left out in front of Allen Hall with cop car lights flashing and a huge spotlight annoying me from my mirror. I see Scott and Dave just kinda standing outside of Allen, laughing it up. Yah, they seemed to think this was quite funny, so I leaned out the car window and yelled, "Hey, Dave, Scott, come on and get in the car!" To which they replied, "Hey, don't use our names!"

About this time, another person I know, Julie, goes walking on by, and of course, she knew it was my car cause it kinda says so on the back... She stops to talk with Dave and Scott and they all seem to just be getting one big kick out of this. Anyways, after like 10 minutes, the cop finally came back with my warning.

Officer: "Yah, I ran the license and wrote up the warning. I didn't bother checking to see if you'd been pulled over by us before for something like this, have you?"
Me: "No, this is my first time ever being pulled over by any cop."
Officer: "Ever?"
Me: "Yeah"
Officer: "How long have you been driving?"
Me: <takes out my license hoping it is shown on there, then I realize it's not> "Since I was 16, so I dunno, like 4 years. 4 and a half years."
Officer: "Well, if you keep driving like that, you'll probably get pulled over again. I recorded this in our database and when they see you have the warning they may ticket you."
Me: "OK, I understand, again, I'm sorry"
Officer: "Any other questions?"
Me: "Yeah, does this warning get recorded in just the U of I police database or does it go all over?"
Officer: "Just the U of I one, so if you get pulled over by Champaign-Urbana police, they probably won't notice it, although it does also get fed into the county records."
Me: "OK, thanks."
Officer: "You're free to go."

Then when we did get to the theater, Tom was already there and starting giving me crap about being late and not saving him seats and stuff, but I just told him I didn't even want to hear it at that point. :)

When we got back, Scott thought he'd be real funny and send me the following:

Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 02:56:50 -0600
From: Scott D Hughes <sdhughes@uiuc.edu>
To: mw@mattwright.com
Subject: Car Sighting

Matt~
I think I spotted your car tonight. I was waiting for a ride outside Allen Hall. I saw you pull into the circle in front of the door, with a squad car in close pursuit. Its lights were flashing. When you stopped, the officer shined the spotlight on you and proceeded to question you about your occupational status (are you a pizza delivery guy?), driving experience (how long have you been driving?), prior violations (none), and reason for your hurry (also none). It was quite entertaining, and you made quite a spectacle of yourself outside Allen Hall. OK, I'll admit, I was actually waiting for YOU to pick me up for the movie, but after that whole ordeal I was reluctant to get in the car. Dave and I weren't too eager to jump in to the car that was undergoing police interrogation. Oh well, funny night. We saw a good movie, when the police finally said you were free to go. Catch ya later dude.
~Scott