Back in the summer of ’00, I was riding my Triumph back to work after a break. I was riding down a side-street at probably 5-10mph over and a police officer pulled out after me with his lights on. I was just heading into the industrial park where my summer job was and whacked the throttle. At the time, I had a clean driving record and had never had anything more than one written warning a verbal or two.
I don’t know what went through my head. One second I see the lights, the next I’m in a high-speed pursuit and after a few minutes, I completely lost him. I stopped and got gas and was about .5-mi from my apartment where I lived at the time and when I pulled up to a stop sign, a county sheriff pulled up next to me. When I took off around the corner, he made a right-hand turn from the left lane and came after me. Within about 3 minutes, I was pulled over on the side of the road along with:
- Hamilton County Sheriff
- Cicero Police Officer
- Indiana Conservation Officer
- Noblesville Police Officer
- Tipton Police Officer
After answering few questions about alcohol and drugs and a bunch about my bike (Triumphs were rare as hens teeth in central Indiana at this time), I was taken into custody by the officer that originally took pursuit. That is a good thing, because the county where the sheriff was from that eventually stopped me is notorious for throwing the book at people for everything. I was charged with a class-D felony, 110/30mph ticket and a failure to stop ticket. The officer that took me was very cool and let me sit in front, un-cuffed me, and talked to me like I was a civilized person and told me what I needed to do to get things taken care of. My bike was hauled off on a flat-bed and luckily was not damaged when I picked it up out of impound.
After a trip to a lawyer and a couple court dates, the Class D Felony was dropped as was my “110mph in a 30mph zone” ticket and my “failure to stop” ticket. I was given a 1yr sentence that was suspended and ended up with 1yr probation and community service that included washing and waxing police cars.
That event had to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done. And for those of you that have ever thought about it, I was almost there. However, 99% of the time you aren’t going to outrun the radio. This little streak of idiocy cost me in 2000/2001 dollars:
- $725- lawer fees
- $125 probation fees
- $100 fine
- $150- impound fee
- Multiple court dates with time off work
- About 6mo of Saturday mornings spent detailing police cars
Also, if it had not been for the lawyer and the change from 'felony' to 'misdemeanor', I would have also lost my job that I had just spent 5yrs working to get. So think about it before you try.