My point was that any trooper worth his salt would see the gun was properly cased, smile, and give you a friendly nod.... ....and that would conclude the transaction. And even if he had inquired, the answer that you didn't want to leave the gun unsecured in your car during a carwash would have likely been answered with a "good boy."LAYGO wrote:Well, I figured he would know what was in the case & it might draw attention.The Annoyed Man wrote:The pistol was in a case. Why should it draw the trooper's attention?
The pistol had a round chambered with a full mag (6+1) + 3 spare loaded mags.
I'm chuckling because I had almost exactly the same kind of experience when I first moved here from California. I had a 1911 that I kept under the front seat of my SUV. I also had a small "quick-opening" type of bedside table gun lock-box in the back of the car (I was living out of a hotel room down in Dallas at the time). I went to a carwash here in Grapevine (the one on 26 across from the Walmart) while I was house-hunting one day, and I remembered at the last second that I had a gun in the car right when the guy stepped up to start vacuuming out the front seats. "Wait just a second" says I, and I step around the back of the car, get the gun lock box, and while he's looking over my shoulder, retrieve the .45, put it in the lock box, and walk inside with it under my arm. His eyes got big.
Lo and behold, there is a guy in the lobby wearing some kind of "LEO" type uniform. For all I know, he might have been a uniformed security guard. I wasn't familiar with Texas police uniforms at the time, so I have no idea what he was. But I knew that any reasonable cop would agree with my decision not to leave the gun in the car. And even though I drew some stares from guys who obviously knew what I was carrying in that box, I figured that the gun was locked up, out of sight, and for all they knew, it could have been a bag of diamonds in there, and not a gun at all. I didn't worry about it too much.
If I had still been in California, I would have been a whole lot worried.