#ConfessionFriday
A cop caught me littering in the most 'red-handed' way possible... because Im a big, fat, stupid head!
My Sister and I were traveling up 95North... I was driving. We had been on the road for a while and we had eaten a bunch of snacks; cookies, potato chips, juices, sodas... and so we had all these empty wrappers/containers in my car. My young, dumb self came up with a bright idea to go ahead and clean my car out... by tossing all that stuff (plus note paper and whatever other trash) out the window.
So... while going highway speed (so.... like 65mph or so), in the right lane, jamming to the music and having fun... I rolled down the passenger window and tossed a couple things past my Sister. NOTE: My Sister has always super hated littering and she was sooo upset with me and wanted me to stop. But I didnt. However, I stopped throwing things out of her window. I rolled down my window and stretched my left hand out and tossed items across the top of my vehicle so they could still land on the right side of the road (grassy area). After maybe 10 total items had been tossed... I saw the blue & red flashing lights turn on from the car immediately behind me! (I have no idea how I missed that a cop was driving behind me. Guess I was too caught up in being an idiot.)
I pulled over. My Sister immediately gave me the "that's what you get", "nan-nanny-boo-boo" ridicule; she had no pity or empathy for me. Cop came to my window and was like "Hey man. What the <bleep> are you doing!?" and then he started laughing hysterically... (I guess out of pure shock and curiosity). I told him that I didnt have any reasonable explanation for littering. Cop said he was behind me for almost a mile before he stopped me. Because he was originally gonna stop me sooner, for the first piece of litter... but when he noticed that I kept throwing things out, he waited to see what else I was doing. And finally, he had enough.
Cop told me to get out the car and go pick up litter from the ground and put it back in my car. At first I said "Eww, NO!". Then Cop said to avoid thousands of dollars of fines (because it was a whole lot of litter), I better get out and go clean up. So, I got out. I asked the Cop if he had gloves or a bag and he was like "Did you have gloves or a bag when you tossed stuff out?" *Touché, Cop... touché.* So I had to pick up a bunch of items with my bare hands and sit them in my car. NOTE: he had me pick up all the trash in the vicinity of where we were stopped, which included other people's litter, but he didnt make me go back a mile to get everything I specifically threw out. Cop watched me for nearly 15 minutes putting random, loose litter trash into my vehicle. And finally he said "Good enough" and let us go. I def got off the highway somewhere and emptied that stuff into a garbage receptacle (@ 7-11 or Burger King... something like that).
In hindsight, I really appreciate the Officer... because while it was 'dirty', it was better than having to pay those fines... or coming to court to try to fight it, especially since it happened in North Carolina and I lived in Richmond VA, and I still could have lost and had to pay fines anyway. BUT... after that... I COMPLETELY STOPPED LITTERING!!! (Big things, I mean. I further confess that I may still toss a gum wrapper or straw wrapper out. But nothing else)