Wichita Shenanigans

Slowbaru · #1 02-23-2009, 03:17 PM

So, as some of you know I went to pick up a new car this weekend.

I had a great time going to pick up the car, until about 1PM on sunday afternoon.

I was cruising down I-35 doing 74 in a 70, I'm not really in any big hurry so I'm going relatively slow compared to the speeds that I would normally be doing.

I notice a cop on the opposite side of the highway parked right where they have the breaks in the concrete for emergency vehicles to get through. I pass the cop, and out of the corner of my eye I notice him start the car and start to pull onto my side of the highway.

I remain cool, drop the car to right under 70 and just continue on my merry way. I'm in the left lane and I notice the cop coming up behind me pretty quick, so I move over a lang HOPING that he's after someone else. He moves over into my lane and flips on his lights.

"Great" I thought to myself, the last thing I needed right now was a ticket, but little did I know that I was about to get MUCH more than I bargained for.

So the cop walks up in his usual prickish manner and asks me why I moved into the other lane when he was coming up behind me. I had to explain to the guy that I would move out of anyone's way that was traveling at a higher rate of speed than I was when i was in the fast lane. He kinda scoffs at me and spits (he's dipping).

He asks me if I know why he pulled me over, and I tell him no. He never really gives me an answer on why he pulled me over, my initial thought was that he pulled me over for speeding but... 74 in a 70? Come on...

So I give the cop my insurance and license, and I also have my FAA badge in the car and he asks if he can take that as well. I tell him my DL should be enough, but if he needs it he's more than welcome to take it.

I sit in the car for about 20 mintues while they run my information, at this point I had been driving for about 6 hours and I was just ready to get home.

The officer comes back and asks me to step out of the car, so naturally I start to get a bit nervous so I ask him if there's a problem which he again avoids the question. He takes me to the back of the car and points out that the tag on my car is from South Dakota, and started asking me what exactly I was doing driving from SD to OK. So, I explain to the guy exactly what I'm doing, show him the purchase agreement that I have in my car, he still doesn't seem satisfied, all this time his partner is poking around in the front seat of my car. The cop talking to me had purposely positioned me so that I wouldn't notice his partner looking through my car, but I still caught it out of the corner of my eye.

The cop then asks me if he can search my car, I tell him no. I say that I'm on a schedule to get back to Oklahoma City because I was going out to my birthday dinner with my father and would like to be on time. He gives me my information back, and tells me to have a seat in my car for a few minutes.

He comes up and tells me that a judge has issued a warrant to search my car, I ask him on what grounds and again the police officer dodges my question. At this point he's getting pretty irritatate with me and my blood is starting to boil. So I get out of the car, and I let them do their thing. They go through all the paperwork that's in the car, open the truck, pull everything out yada, yada. The cop's partner comes over to me and starts asking me to confirm all the details of my story, I almost felt like they were TRYING to get me to lie to them. They were asking me very specific questions, like where I was at what time. The officers at this point were really starting to cheese me off, but I was biting my tongue and keeping my cool... Miltary bearing FTW.

So they finish the search of the car, and the cop calls over his partner to look at something in the trunk of the car, they talk about it a bit more and they keep looking back at me and talking under their breath where I can't hear them.

Finally the officer comes back over to me and asks me if I know anything about the "bondo" that is in the trunk of the car under the wheel well thing. I really have no idea what he's talking about so I ask him to show me. I walk over and touch it with my finger, "That's not bondo, that is a rubber sealant that I know for a fact is on all subarus." I remember that the wheel well of my WRX is also silver with this white rubbery stuff because I just had a flat tire a few weeks ago and specifically remember seeing it so I tell the officer that. He's not buying it. I even try to tell him, bondo doesn't feel like this once it's dried it's more dry/papery, it almost reminds me of drywall, this doesn't flake like bondo does.

So, he tells me to get into the car and pull to the next rest area. At this point I'm about to lose it. I tell him that he's seen all the documents in my car from everywhere I've been, I had receipts with timestamps from reputable companies that account for every millisecond of my trip and they are just deciding to for some ungodfully known reason search my car. The cop at this point starts to get reallllllllly belligerent with me and gets in my face, telling me that he should just take me to jail right now. At this point I just want out of this situation, so I get in my car and drive to the rest stop. Along the way I called an attorney that I knew back from the days whenever I was working for a court reported. He told me to just stay calm and to give them all the information they need and to make sure to note any damages and get everyone's name and badge numbers and that he'd talk to me about it when I got back into town.

This helped me cool down a bit, because I knew the police were in the wrong at this point. So I pull to the rest stop, get out of the car and the police officer has me come behind the car and I get a pat down. Nothing on me, of course. I call my wife and let her know what's going on, she starts flipping out "let me talk to that mother f-er, I'll set his ass straight" but he wouldn't talk to her to tell her what was going on. So he tells me that he's really not comfortable with the "bondo" on the inside of the car, I tell him again that I know for a fact that my car has this same exact rubber on it. He tells me they're going to call a subaru dealer to have them come out and look at the car.

He puts me in the back of the squad car, I can feel my blood pressure rising again. He goes to the back of his car and gets what looks like either a screwdriver or some sort of scraper and goes to the back of my car and starts scraping little bits of the rubber off. I knock on the window of the squad car so that the partner comes over and opens the door and I tell him to please tell the officer to not scrape anything on my car, unless the subaru dealer says anything is abnormal. He says nothing and then shuts the door.

They stand and talk to each other for about 5-10 minutes and then the officer comes back to the squad car to speak to me. "are you sure there's nothing we're going to find in there." I told him absolutely not. He tells me that there's no subaru dealership in town that they could get to come out so they were going to go ahead and "remove" the wheel well to make sure there's nothing in there.

Blood pressure is critical at this point.

In the most calm voice I could muster I said, "absolutely not, you need to get your supervisor here. NOW"

He ignores me, and gets out of the car. He gets out and talks to his partner again, he gets back in the car and starts asking me for all of my information again. He even asks for my social security number. I tell him that everything he needs is in my car, and I will NOT be giving him my SSN. He tells me that he needs it for a "background" check, and that he would get it even without my consent. My response. "I AM A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE, MY RECORD IS MORE THAN LIKELY CLEANER THAN YOURS, MY FAA BADGE IS IN MY FRONT SEAT OF MY CAR AND THE CONTRACT IS CURRENT, IF YOU OBTAIN MY INFORMATION UNLAWFULLY THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES" because I remembered that I had my SS card in my wallet, which was in the car. He called in the background check with my driver's license.

Guess what?

Came back clean. If the FBI said I was clean enough to work at my current job very seriously doubted that some pissant wichita cop was going to find any dirt on me. I haven't had a ticket in almost 4 years, serious this guy has NOTHING on me.

The officer tells me that they have decided to call a canine before cutting the car, I'm going to have a dog climbing in and out of my new car, with leather seats?

Awesome.

While waiting for the dog the cops continue to search my car, they rip up the cushions of the seats, they toss the seat cushions and my jack, spare and all the covers in the grass next to the car. They're just having absolutely no regard for my personal things.

Canine finally arrives. (about 2:30 hours after initally being pulled over), they let the dog sniff the car for a good 10 minutes. They really were convinced that there was something in this car. The dog scratched the bumper of my car, and put an indintation on the front passenger seat's bottom.

The cop comes back to the car and lets me out of the back. "You can go.". No apology, nothing. They all start to get back in their cars, and I'm like... wait wait wait... I need everyone's information. There were 2 sherrifs 1 HWP and the k9 unit. The highway patrolman was apparently a lieutenant and he took me off by myself and said "If we have a problem why don't we need to go ahead and handle it right now." I told him no, that I had received specific instructions from my attorney and that he would be contacting them sometime in the coming week. He then proceeded to pry at why I was calling an attorney and that everything they did was within reason. I told him that I was only following his instructions and that I was not looking for any further confrontation. It took me about 10 minutes to get everyone's badge numbers, and one by one they all drove off.

So after all of that, after this entire headache I still had to put my car back together. I put the jack, tire, etc back in and noticed the large scratch in side the wheel well now from the officer scraping it. I also notice that whenever they ripped out the back left seat cushion they broke one of the clips that hold the seat in.

I remember a long time ago Chris Rock made the Joke that one time the police scared him so bad they made him think he stole his own car, I felt like MAYBE i was smuggling drugs lol.

Just thought I would share with you guys the AWESOME weekend I had.

EVILFACE · #2 02-23-2009, 03:21 PM

Cliff Notes: "I should have just said yes officer, you can search my car"

Slowbaru · #3 02-23-2009, 03:23 PM

I really don't think it would have mattered either way.

The cop was DEADSET that I had some large amount of cash hidden somewhere in the car, because apparently it's illegal to drive from somewhere near canada to anywhere near the south... because you're obviously doing something you shouldn't.

1WICKDZ · #4 02-23-2009, 03:56 PM

That sucks. There is an EXTREMELY high amount of drug and other illegal traffic that goes down on I-35, however, the information you provided should have sufficed for the situation. Sorry to hear about the whole ordeal. Just get your attorney involved. Also, if the light bar was on the camera inside the vehicle and the microphones on the officers will automatically turn on and record everything. You can have them pull the tape and review it for misconduct.

kerryt1 · #5 02-23-2009, 03:56 PM

Well played on your part. I might not have been so level headed. I hope you get the compensation you're owed.

Slowbaru · #6 02-23-2009, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1WICKDZ

That sucks. There is an EXTREMELY high amount of drug and other illegal traffic that goes down on I-35, however, the information you provided should have sufficed for the situation. Sorry to hear about the whole ordeal. Just get your attorney involved. Also, if the light bar was on the camera inside the vehicle and the microphones on the officers will automatically turn on and record everything. You can have them pull the tape and review it for misconduct.

See here's the thing though, after they pulled me over into the rest stop. The lights went off, so any conduct past that point went unrecorded.

1WICKDZ · #7 02-23-2009, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slowbaru

See here's the thing though, after they pulled me over into the rest stop. The lights went off, so any conduct past that point went unrecorded.

Wow that sucks. Perhaps since the light bar was not on you could get them for detaining you in an unsafe manner for NOT having the light bar on, even though it was at a rest area. Or since you provided all the needed information during the initial stop and can prove that they held you for 2 more hours or however longer after you cooperated you can take that to them. Also, I think you can ask for documentation on them receiving the warrant for the search and verify that they indeed had one.

BerryG6GTP · #8 02-23-2009, 04:15 PM

That seems a bit excessive to me...are they responsible for the damage to the car? I would think so...I'm sorry this happened to you.

1WICKDZ · #9 02-23-2009, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BerryG6GTP

That seems a bit excessive to me...are they responsible for the damage to the car? I would think so...I'm sorry this happened to you.

I would believe the state is responsible, however, proving this would be near impossible. Before/after pictures as well as video or some other evidence of it happening.

Slowbaru · #10 02-23-2009, 04:18 PM

WICKD,

An officer on the subaru board suggested that they probably did not have a warrant, so I will be contacting the wichita sheriff's office tomorrow morning and getting more information about the incident. I called today, but was told it takes them a few days to process reports like this, so I'll keep calling until I can get some further information.

Thanks for the sympathy guys, I posted this more for entertainment purposes and to make sure anyone running up/down I-35 keeps their nose clean.

Slowbaru · #11 02-23-2009, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 1WICKDZ

I would believe the state is responsible, however, proving this would be near impossible. Before/after pictures as well as video or some other evidence of it happening.

I mentioned the scratches as they were pulling off, and yes I got the "those were already there."

The best thing I could think to do was take a pic of it then and get a written statement from the dealer stating that the damage was not there when the car was picked up 12 hours earlier.

1WICKDZ · #12 02-23-2009, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slowbaru

I mentioned the scratches as they were pulling off, and yes I got the "those were already there."

The best thing I could think to do was take a pic of it then and get a written statement from the dealer stating that the damage was not there when the car was picked up 12 hours earlier.

That could work for you. No problem on helping/sympathizing. I have a high respect for the law as my father is a LT. for the OHP and I absolutely hate to hear about officers using their power for the wrong reasons and leaving a bad image on others officers who are supposed to serve and protect the community.

pist0lpete · #13 02-23-2009, 04:24 PM

Man thats a real bummer seemed like they were bent on searching that car from top to bottom whether or not they had a right to. There is no reason to ever give the police a right to search your car and without a warrant in writing they cannot legally do it. I am sure you already knew this so anything they do after that was illegal. Good luck getting your car fixed and making sure these officers receive the appropriate punishment.

Timbo1969 · #14 02-23-2009, 04:56 PM

I would have probably said something. They can't detain you like that without a warrant, unless they have probable cause, ie alcohol smell, pot smell, etc. And if they have a warrant they must show proof before searching your car.

Slowbaru · #15 02-23-2009, 05:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Timbo1969

I would have probably said something. They can't detain you like that without a warrant, unless they have probable cause, ie alcohol smell, pot smell, etc. And if they have a warrant they must show proof before searching your car.

So if they told me that they had a warrant but didn't...

Do I have some sort of recourse for that?

EVILFACE · #16 02-23-2009, 05:04 PM

If it was a squad of buddies, a warrant will be produced.

Slowbaru · #17 02-23-2009, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EVILFACE

If it was a squad of buddies, a warrant will be produced.

Always breaking mah bawlz.

EVILFACE · #18 02-23-2009, 05:11 PM

There is always what should happen and what will happen.

Slowbaru · #19 02-23-2009, 05:16 PM

And you're always right there to remind me so.

>

Trace · #20 02-23-2009, 05:19 PM

An understatment I know but, that sucks dude.... PC can be based on officer discretion. Terry v. Ohio with specific reference to search and siezure and the only provocation to which was "Terry" and his partner did not look right at the time... I guess you, "didn't look right at the time". More than likely you will get no compensation (minimally at best)from thier actions and it would take considerable amount of time in attempting to do so if you did. I will always allow consent to search when/if asked by a police officer, and this scenario is the unfortunate reason for that. Really sucks man. Sorry... If I were in your position I would most definitely file a formal complaint with thier dept. If they get enough complaints that could be enough to correct thier actions. They probably were just at a seminar that instructed them on this method of hiding contraband... They obviously need more training...