At least they had the excuse first. Sometimes with bad cops they come up with the excuse later.
Reminds me of the cases where people are erroneously reported deceased but are in fact alive. It causes a whole lot of hurt and it takes quite a bit of effort to clear up.
I had an officer treat me with suspicion one day leaving work because I’d slowed down to let him get ahead of me (instead of seeing him trapped in traffic behind a bus). He waved me on and then ran my plates.
He pulled me over in the next block because he said that the plates didn’t match “the make of the car” even though they were as issued from the dealership (used Olds car from I think a Cadillac dealership). I’d owned the car for 5 years at that point and had renewed and had inspections (and even traffic citations) without issue.
He was suspicious of the clothes in the back seat of my car and asked if I was sleeping in my vehicle (I was not) and when he sent me on my way he told me to “be careful next time”. In short, he was a dick.