I now can include myself in the small percentage of the population whose vehicle has been stopped by driving over a police spike strip. On the up side, I wasn’t the intended target.
On Tuesday night, I was driving home from my standard dive practice time at 9:15pm when I noticed a singular police vehicle with its lights on in the median of Rt. 30. That was only partially unusual because the police car was in the median facing us instead of on the side of the road. There were three cars in my little cluster, and we all slowed down and moved to the right lane. As I got closer, I realized that the officer was actually in front of his vehicle and moving his hands along the ground. His headlights were behind him, blinding us from seeing him very well. Okay, that was a little more unusual. As this was happening, I was coming up on my street, so I needed to turn right. I was between the two other cars. I was nervous that the car behind me may not notice my blinker, with everything going on, so I decided to pull way into the shoulder of the road leading into my turn. With the high speed limits around us, most people pull onto the shoulder leading into this particular turn. I briefly (and way too late) noticed something dark on the road. Bert (the SUV of questionable origin) drove over it without even a blip, so I thought maybe it was a branch. I proceeded through my turn and got about a block down the road when my tire pressure light went on. Hmmm. Maybe that branch hurt my tire. But maybe I could make it home. I quickly realized that I wouldn’t make it home as poor Bert grinded to a halt as I moved him to the side of the dark, dark road we live on.
Being so close to home (maybe ½ mile), I called Travis. I figured we could change a tire. With him on the way, I decided to get out of the car and inspect the rear passenger tire, which I felt was the culprit for absolutely no logical reason. Turns out it was flat. As I walked back to the drivers door, I decided to check the front passenger tire. There was no way that that branch had taken out two of my tires. But alas, it had, in fact, taken out both passenger tires. Now, I’m not so bright, so at this point, I still hadn’t figured out that all four tires were flat. I just realized that I needed to go through my insurance’s emergency road assistance because I don’t have two spare tires. As I am going through the tedious online system, I have to mark which tire is flat. At this point, I decided to check the other two tires. That’s when I saw the weird gray things in each and every tire tread. Um, I may not be that bright, but I could easily see that this was no branch. And all four tires were flat down to the rims.
Seriously????!!!! So, I completed my online request for a tow, complete with an explanation in the comments that I completed it correctly and all four tires were flat (so please don’t just send some poor soul with a car jack) and I needed a flatbed tow truck. As I called the police, Travis pulled up and turned around behind me. Even in my teeny tiny mind, I could figure out that the random police cruiser in the median was probably involved in this odd event.
When the police arrived, Trent and I were walking back from Rt. 30 because I wanted to see if anything was still on the road (there wasn’t). Travis said there was no way he was letting us drive his car down there. Of course Travis was filling his own back drivers side tire as the police officer pulls up, because it’s losing air lately, he had the pump in his car, and we wouldn’t look like enough of a freak show if we didn’t have two people walking down a dark road and the third filling a tire on a car that is completely uninvolved in the event. Ugh! It’s amazing we have any friends. After sorting out the true nature of things, the officer took all the usual stuff, license, registration, proof of insurance.
So, the three of us were standing between our cars talking while the officer was checking things out and it began to rain. Nice! I look at Travis and say, “This could only get better if Michigan never got that check I paid for my speeding ticket and driving without a license and there is a warrant for my arrest. Then I could get cuffed and taken away and you could bail me out of jail.”
Travis looked at me with the oddest face (or maybe it was just dark and raining), and said, “Stop talking now! Weird shit happens to you! Don’t start making suggestions!” We all chuckled nervously as we waited to see if I could actually bring additional bad luck on myself by merely mentioning it. That didn’t happen! Whew!
The officer had me cancel my insurance tow and he called a tow, which seemed to arrive before he hung up the phone. We got home around 10:45pm. My insurance called me around 11pm to let me know that someone was on the way. Apparently that electronic system that had me confirm the cancel three times didn’t actually cancel the tow.
The following morning, at work (Trent had to drop me off), I got a voicemail with a quote for $1480 for four new tires. Within an hour, I had another voicemail saying that the sheriff would cover the cost. WHEW! I think that total would cost me two years worth of my coaching salary, which was why I was driving home at that time in the first place.
The car was finished by that night, with the tires that matched the brand that I had purchased just one year ago. Meanwhile, Travis had Trent take his car in for that leak, since Trent isn’t working this week (another story for another time). The tire place wouldn’t touch it and said the alignment was whack and that Trent should take it immediately to the dealer and not drive on it. So, for a very short period of time, before Sandberg’s let me know that my tires arrived and were on Bert, we were actually down two cars. Travis is getting his fixed today and Bert is back on the road with shiny new tires. And the Major at the sheriff’s department called me to apologize and make sure everything was okay. He was actually embarrassed and told me that he had never had anything like that happen in his 20+ years in law enforcement. Of course you didn’t sir. I didn’t used to live here. Honestly, though, it was the nicest call. I let him know that I was happy and back on the road. If only I had taken Travis’ car, perhaps we could have gotten new tires (and whatever else needs to be done) on a car that needs new tires!
Have a great week everyone!