Pulled Over By Lakeway's Finest

[dihappy]

Fiance and i were on our way back from her job in Bee Cave up 620 headed back home to Austin when i got lit up in Lakeway.

Im no clean cut, blue eyed, blonde, and most of Lakeway's residents are in the "upper echelon" when it comes to finances if you know what i mean :)

I dont drive a Lexus or BMW like everyone else either, so i was like "oh great", "what did i do". I tell my fiance, "I hope this guy doesnt hate bald, hispanics with gotees" :P

My fiance always makes fun of my CHL picture, she says i look like a BG on it :)

So i pull over immediately and grab my DL, CHL, and Insurance. Its dark out there, so i turn on the dome light, roll down the windows (tinted) and place my hands on the steering wheel.

The officer walks up with his hand on his piece and greets me. He tells me that i have a headlight out and asks for my info. I hand it over and he asked if im carrying and where, i tell him yes, lower back, iwb. He asks me to keep my hands on the wheel and informs me that my Inspection is out of date. He asks me to hang tight and that he will be right back.

A nice guy, very cordial, and no lectures.

he returns and tells me to get everything taken care of and to have a good night.

Yayy for Lakeway PD :)

[nitrogen]

Must be the season for pididdles.

[Fangs]

I'm surprised, I have friends who have been ticketed for 2 or 3 miles over the limit in Lakeway. Glad you made it through unscathed.

[dihappy]

Im curious, do those friends have a CHL?

Maybe that made a difference, although it isnt suppose to :)

[bryang]

Congratulations, I am glad to hear every went so well for you. I have heard of several good stops here lately, maybe the LEO's are getting better training concerning CHL.

-geo

[Fangs]

No CHL on those tickets.

[HankB]

Here's a Lakeway story posted over at The Firing Line several years ago by a fellow using the handle "Drizzt" . . .

I just wanted to pass along a story which was told to me the other evening. I was speaking with one of the board members for SAS (Second Amendment Sisters) the other evening, she told about an incident she'd had. Let me preface this by describing this person, she immediately strikes you as a sweet little grandmother, not as a "pistol-packin' mama", and is an extremely fun person to talk to. Anyhow, some of the other board members were down here visiting, and they decided they wanted to go to the range. On the way back, they were stopped for speeding in Lakeway. Of course, in TX, the first thing a CHL holder is required to tell the officer is that they are carrying a firearm. The officer was ok, until he asked where the pistol was. She pointed out that there was 1 in her purse, 1 in the console, and 1 in the glove compartment. Ok, no problem so far.... Then the little old lady in the passenger seat speaks up "Oh, and I've got 2 guns with me as well." The officer probably scratched his head.... Then from the back seat, "And officer, we've got 4 more guns back here." Then, after being told of the approx 2000 rounds of ammo in the trunk, the officer decided he didn't want to hear anything else, and went back to his cruiser to run the standard checks. When he walks back to the car, writing in his book, one of the other ladies asks him not to give the driver a ticket. The officer laughed and said that he would only give her a warning, because they had definitely just made his day.

I asked her if she had seen that officer since then, and she said she still sees him occasionally on patrol, and he just smiles and waves..... and probably swears to never pull her car over again .

On several occasions I've seen a Lexus with a large placard on the side for the Second Amendment Sisters, both parked at the local Randall's and being driven down Lakeway Boulevard by what seemed to be a nice little old lady . . . probably the same person.

[NcongruNt]

Maybe they've improved in the last decade or so.

I remember hearing a story from a friend (or was it a friend/sister of a friend? It's been 15 years...) who was pulled over by Lakeway PD. There's lots of hills there going out towards the neighborhoods, and to keep from speeding with a cop behind them, this person kept on the brakes to keep under the limit. Sure enough, she gets pulled over anyway... for excessive braking. This wasn't first-hand observation, but I do know plenty of folks who got ticketed (and they're expensive in Lakeway, even for tiny infractions) for less than 3mph over, especially folks who weren't from around there (visiting friends, etc).

I've heard that Westlake/Rollingwood cops are real aggressive on outsiders as well, and tend to pull folks over for not being from around there during night time hours.

[HankB]

. . . I do know plenty of folks who got ticketed (and they're expensive in Lakeway, even for tiny infractions) for less than 3mph over, . . .

I was on a Lakeway jury for a guy fighting a ticket - 5MPH over in a school zone. Short version: He defended himself, he was a jerk, so we found him guilty and fined him $5 . . . $1 for each MPH over the limit. (Of course, he had a deferred judgement on a prior Lakeway ticket that came back because of this conviction . . . )

[dihappy]

Wow, those are some crazy stories.

I wish i would have gotten the officers name and written a letter just in case he or his friends pull me over again.

[Mcoupe]

Nice stories! Lakeway PD for the win!

[mr.72]

Back in the 90s I worked in Lakeway, lived in NW Austin. I have always had sports cars and during this time in my life I had a '72 240Z. This car was loud (headers, glasspack, nothing else), it attracted a lot of attention, and I was young. It also turns out that I had just swapped the transmission in this car for a 5-speed from a 280ZX and I was unsure that the speedometer was reading correctly.

One day someone broke into my car overnight in my apartment complex parking lot, and as a result the driver's side quarter window was broken out. I still had to drive it to work that day and since it was not raining I just left it alone and drove in. Of course I get into Lakeway and I got pulled over just before turning into my office. The officer came up behind the window, asked me for my name and ID, I handed it out the window, then he just handed it back and said, "ok, just checking". After asking him what was up he said he noticed the car was loud and probably going faster than normal, and with the broken window he wanted to make sure it was not stolen. He also mentioned that he recognized my car, since I drove to work there daily. So once he had established that I was in fact the owner of the car I was free to go. So then I caught him while he was about to walk away and asked if I was speeding. He looked puzzled, said nobody had ever asked him that, and he said he didn't know because he wasn't checking my speed. Then he asked why I would ask, and I explained that I knew what my indicated speed was, but I wasn't sure what my actual speed was due to changing the transmission in the car. So he says, "ok, tell you what. You go on down the highway. Drive '55' on your speedometer and then at the next light pull over and I'll tell you what your actual speed was". So that's just what I did. I drive 55.0 on the speedo, then pull over at the next light, he pulls in behind and says "ok, you were going about 78. So if you keep the speedometer on about 40 then you should be fine. Have a nice day!"

I had been driving through Lakeway to work for over a month going 23 mph or more over the speed limit and didn't get pulled over until they suspected my car was stolen.

I got the impression that since they recognized my car and knew I was a regular person working in Lakeway, they sort of looked the other way on speeding. But who knows for sure.

Anyway, this and several other encounters with Lakeway PD made me quite a fan of that police dept. Years later I was a coach of my daughter's softball team and one of the parents of another kid on the team was a Lakeway PD officer and he told me that they try to be pretty easy going with the regular people, and since it's such a small community they can keep a pretty good watch on who 'belongs' and who doesn't.

I have a ton of other fun police traffic stop stories, but I'll quit now since this is the best Lakeway story.

Needless to say, I went on and changed the differential in my car with the same one from the 280ZX and got the speedo reading right on, and I never got pulled over again in Lakeway.

[dihappy]

:) Thats a great story.

I just got a different car, so i hope they dont single me out as an oddball :)

I drive my girlfrield to work down in BeeCave just about everyday, until we can get her a car of her own.

Sure wish i could afford some of them homes they got down there, :P