I guess my city is getting pretty desperate for revenue. I was headed out tonight and took a narrow, dark street to get to the highway. Note this street is shaped like a sine wave, with a valley in the middle and two peaks on either side. It's very poorly lighted & people like to park on the street. At night, you have to take it very slow to avoid clipping cars you don't see until you're on them. Apparently, this also makes it the perfect spot to set up a ticket trap.

Just as I'm rounding the first hill (going the speed limit, mind you), a really bright light hits me from the side. I squint and snap to my left, and there are two cops -- one aiming a flashlight at my face -- leaning to look into my car as I roll by less than 20 feet away. They'd camouflaged their cars in the line of others, and they themselves were invisible until they'd activated their lights. I had my window down & was *not* wearing my seat-belt, and they were clearly looking me up and down. I had an "O sh--" moment. I was going slowly enough that I heard the female officer point me out to the other. She said "That way," as I rolled by, while in my rear-view mirror, I saw the other reaching for something which I believed to be a radio.

I instantly figured that there was another cop perched on the opposite peak waiting to write me a nice, big ticket. Fortunately for me tonight, there's an unlit, one-way side street in this valley that is the only way off this road before you hit the outlet. As soon as I made it down the hill, out of their view, I hit the lights and drove down the side street into the labyrinthine maze of a subdivision it led to. My car is also a Japanese-made 4-cylinder, and runs silent as a bug. I did a few zigzags, and quietly navigated my way to a street parallel to the one I came in on and booked it like never before.

I should have been wearing my belt; at the same time, it's obnoxious, startling and unsafe to (pa)troll a road and shine lights in peoples' eyes as they're driving by. Used to be that they were just interested in drunk drivers...but I guess, with this economy, they're niggling to make up the monetary difference. Anywhoo, I lucked out. Do the speed-limit and keep those belts on folks

Have a good and ticket-free labor day