I was coming up I-85 after a business conference we had attended all weekend. While driving the vehicle which contained 3 other occupants, a business partner, my wife and my mother and law, I was getting to tired to drive safely. I pulled onto an off ramp and into a gas station to close my eyes for 20 minutes and press on. After sitting still for 2 minutes I had blue lights and a spotlight shining into the car. Assuming it was an officer who had observed us pull in and wanted to make sure all was well. I good naturedly rolled down the window and was asked why were there. Upon responding we were taking a brief nap, the female sheriff told us we could not because the store was going to close and we couldn't stay on the lot, as well as "that just isn't normal in NC and folks don't just take naps like that." I just assumed she was odd and thought we'd conclude at that point. She then asked for my license and registration and called me ma'am, I am a sir. When I asked why she called me ma'am she ignored me and grew louder for the registration. I gave it to her, she interrogated me about our purpose for passing thru and I told her. Her next question was did I have any weapons on me. Stranger. I said no and then she asked me to get out of the car and patted me down for guns or whatever she was looking for and then began to ask me about drugs. Again more odd. Upon satisfied I was not in possession, she proceeded to wake up my wife, my mother-in-law and my business partner and pat them down as well. Threatened to search my vehicle and brought in a drug dog while calling me ma'am repeatedly. By this time I had her car, 2 city officers and what looked like an unmarked car at the scene. No other officer said a word they just watched and would not answer my questions at all. She then got a drug-dog out of the back of her car and walked it all around my car letting me know she didn't need my permission and she could search in car in the parking lot. After about 20 minutes she concluded that we were in the right and legal, remaining rude and hostile the whole time. She told me to go at that point but refused to back up and told me to pull thru the grass and that she would not reverse her vehicle. At this point I believed her to be totally unpredictable and believed if I did pull thru the grass she would pounce to write some type of ticket, I asked her again to back up and reversed 12 inches and told me to "go on". I asked again for her to reverse and she then jumped out of her car and one of the city officers got out of theirs and threatened to take me to jail for the night as I was unwilling to pull thru the grass. I asked for names and badge numbers as I believe we needed to report this and they refused.
I do not know the county this sheriff was in but I sent the exact write up to alamance county sheriff's dept and I am going to send it to every sheriff's dept up I-85.
This was an unbelievable encroachment on my civil rights and it will not stand.
Does anyone have any info on how to persue this?

It sounds like you are taking the right steps. Did you end up pulling through the grass? I don't know what I would have done. This is crazy.

I had to or she was going to "take me to jail" it was nuts, wife crying all sorts of stuuf.

Up until asking you to pull through the grass, everything was normal. Being as how the store was closing, I assume it was late in the evening. An officer comes upon a car full of people in the parking lot of a store that is obviously closing, at night, most likely from out of their area since it was a business conference you were coming from. Asking if you have weapons is very normal. A car with four people, one officer, of course she wanted to know if there were any weapons, because that puts her in danger. Questions about drugs? That's their job, and the whole sitting in a gas station parking lot with a carload of people when the store is closing could be construed as suspicious. If I was an officer, I would most definately check it out and see what was going on. I would have gone about it differently, but I would have done the same thing and asked the same questions. The fact that she called you ma'am was weird, but who knows...could have been an honest mistake of some sort. I've heard of military folks that call all superiors "sir", even women. The threat to search the car is wrong. Anything found after the search would not be any good, without articulated probable cause. You never should have backed up towards her car. Easily viewed as a threatening move. But, then again, you should never have been asked to pull over the grass either.

You should find out where the place was that it happened and find out what county it is and get ahold of the captain and talk to him about it. I wouldn't file a complaint just yet, until you talk to one of the commanding officers, someone above the watch commander. Be professional about it. Don't threaten, insult or be overly aggressive as that will get you no where. Since nothing happened too awful bad, I'd go for a written apology, as that will be enough to let the whole department know what is going on and they will keep an eye on her for a while.

What Spyder said sounds pretty good to me. Without positive identification of the officers or even the department (County) they were from it would be impossible to proceed and get any satisfaction.

we're narrowing it down, all i'm looking for is for them to keep an eye out. the whole tone was nuts.

I can understand everything except her calling you "ma'am" and asking you to pull through the grass. Interesting situation though...

C-mon give me a break. She acted as if she was upset that she didn't find anything. If everything turned up OK even after you put a f_cking dog in my car the least you could do is back up and let me leave.

Should be easy to find out who was there by checking police/sheriff dispatch logs, for date-time-location and type of activity.
Very unprofessional on her part the way she handled this contact. She didn't move her unit because of attitude she felt, "how dare you ask me to move."

I always pull into closed gas stations at night with other Semi's and cars around to sleep if Im too far from the nearest rest stop. The only time I dont is if the gas station/hotel/restaurant has specific signage instructing vehicles and semis not to park overnight or at given hours. It is ludicrous for any officer to have an attitude with you about pulling off the highway for a nap, accidents from people falling asleep at the wheel are a leading cause of deaths and injuries on insterstate highways. Public service announcements left and right tell you to pull off no matter you may be and find a safe place to sleep if you begin to feel sleepy, and thats exactly what I do. Rest areas are way too far apart for me. And with state funds constantly being reduced, rest areas are almost always one of the first things to suffer.

I agree though, the rest was fully legal except the grass thing.

One last question... was she hot? LOL :P

Ok. I don't care for cops much. That said, I'd normally jump right on your side and bash on cops abusing their power. You give a person minimal education, allow them to carry a big gun and drive a big car, and give them almost absolute authority over civilians, and you attract certain "bully" types to the job.

Now that I've cleared that up, I think your story is strange and you left out the part about copping an attitude with the copper. I would initially find it very strange to stumble onto a car load of people sound asleep....if not suspicious, it's down right weird. I have never encountered a cop who refused to give their name or badge number, and at any point durring a traffic stop you can insist that the officer call their shift supervisor if you believe they've somehow wronged you.

Based on this:


When I asked why she called me ma'am she ignored me and grew louder for the registration. I gave it to her, she interrogated me about our purpose for passing thru and I told her.


I'll bet your demeanor was a little agressive/smart arse toward the cop which is where you REALLY went wrong. She got loud because you didn't immediately do what she said. When they tell you to do something and you ask stupid questions like, "why did you call me ma'am," they'll just see you as a punk or smart arse. You have to maintain a humble/friendly/always compliant attitude with cops at all times or they'll flex their muscle and show you who's boss. I can believe the whole, "I won't reverse my vehicle, you can just drive through the grass" thing. That's a battle of ego...and the cop will always win.


Now BOY

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/rolex/-you-will-respect-my-authority.jpg


ETA: Just to be clear, I'm not calling you out. The cop didn't have the right to drag you over the coals because you were a little testy.

Man that sucks!! Yeah the weirdest part is them refusing not to give you their badge numbers...I'm pretty sure that's illegal, and her making you drive over he grass. What a bummer, there probably isn't much you can do but I'm sory that happened. :(

Ok. I don't care for cops much. That said, I'd normally jump right on your side and bash on cops abusing their power. You give a person minimal education, allow them to carry a big gun and drive a big car, and give them almost absolute authority over civilians, and you attract certain "bully" types to the job.

Now that I've cleared that up, I think your story is strange and you left out the part about copping an attitude with the copper. I would initially find it very strange to stumble onto a car load of people sound asleep....if not suspicious, it's down right weird. I have never encountered a cop who refused to give their name or badge number, and at any point durring a traffic stop you can insist that the officer call their shift supervisor if you believe they've somehow wronged you.

Based on this:



I'll bet your demeanor was a little agressive/smart arse toward the cop which is where you REALLY went wrong. She got loud because you didn't immediately do what she said. When they tell you to do something and you ask stupid questions like, "why did you call me ma'am," they'll just see you as a punk or smart arse. You have to maintain a humble/friendly/always compliant attitude with cops at all times or they'll flex their muscle and show you who's boss. I can believe the whole, "I won't reverse my vehicle, you can just drive through the grass" thing. That's a battle of ego...and the cop will always win.


Now BOY

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/rolex/-you-will-respect-my-authority.jpg


ETA: Just to be clear, I'm not calling you out. The cop didn't have the right to drag you over the coals because you were a little testy.

I don't care if the president calls me ma'am I'm gonna ask for clarification, I'm not a ma'am, you wouldn't expect some guy you call ma'am to clear that up? Cop or not if I was a woman I would be a big ugly one with a depp voice.

Regardless, got a call yesterday for her captain assuring me that I was in the right and that he would have her in his office first thing because this was way out of procedure and "not the way they handle thier jobs". He said he assumed something else was bugging her and it would be taken care of. Now wether or not you thik it's genuine, I do, and all I wanted was someone being made aware of a cop who was going to eventually cause a problem.

my my, thats quite a story. ive heard some pretty good cop stories, and have had a couple odd experiences myself...but nothing compares to that one. not to mention it was in front of your wife, and her mother!!! the poor lady must have nearly had a heart attack.

on the bright side, atleast you got some closure =]

I don't care if the president calls me ma'am I'm gonna ask for clarification, I'm not a ma'am, you wouldn't expect some guy you call ma'am to clear that up? Cop or not if I was a woman I would be a big ugly one with a depp voice.

Regardless, got a call yesterday for her captain assuring me that I was in the right and that he would have her in his office first thing because this was way out of procedure and "not the way they handle thier jobs". He said he assumed something else was bugging her and it would be taken care of. Now wether or not you thik it's genuine, I do, and all I wanted was someone being made aware of a cop who was going to eventually cause a problem.

Just to be clear...it wasn't my intention to call you out on the genuineness of your story. The sad thing is you're in the right to correct the cop for being a smart ass and calling you ma'am. My point was, that in doing so, you just brought trouble onto yourself and your family [cops will ALWAYS get the best of the ego battles]. Hell you're lucky the jack-booted thugs didn't slam you down onto the concrete and do the "knee on the back of the head thing" to slap the cuffs on you, while holding the rest of your party at gunpoint.

If I were you, I'd file a written complaint. Either way, I'm glad to see that someone gave you a sympathetic ear and admitted the cop was in the wrong. Usually the police higher-ups won't admit to any wrong doing. By admitting a cop used excessive force they believe they've opened up their department and city officials to financial/legal liability. More often than not they stand behind their officers' actions, which further angers people like you and me. :yup:

As nothing was really done to you other than verbal insults, I would be content with the outcome. Not happy, but I'd let it go. Then again, I'm known for letting a lot of crap go that other people don't and everyone says I'm too forgiving. But, you did get recognition that the officer was in the wrong and will be reprimanded. Your call on whether you want to go further with it or not, but any more that you do will likely be a lot of time and effort on your part for very little outcome.

I agree. I'm not pushing the envelope further, all I really wanted was for her to get a word on it and for it to click in her head that not everybody will submit to whatever she decides to dole out when she has a bad day and that her badge does Not make the public her whipping boy. Case closed in my world. I'm ok with it.

it sounds to me like that 'sheriff' was on drugs, not you!

Well, at any rate it's good to know officer Fife is keeping the streets safe from people sleeping on parking lots. ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/rolex/Barn.jpg


Move along people...nothing to see here.

That is all.

Yea, cause a sleeper in a parking lot IS a dangerous thing! :D haha...glad to hear you're alright with the outcome and I hope it doesn't happen to you, or any of us, again.

I try not to be sexist. Really, I do. But the problem was that she was a female cop. My theory is that a large percentage of female police officers are women who have been bullied at some point by a man or men who had power/authority over them. They carry a grudge, get an opportunity to take a job with a lot of authority, then bully you and really ruin your night if you're a man.

hate to say it but it seems to fit...in this case anyways. My aunt is a sherrif and her husband to, right decent the both of 'em. Course they're family n all.