When I was about 23, I was driving from LA to Phoenix and got stopped by an Arizona State Trooper on I-10 near the CA-AZ border. I didn’t break any laws and was obeying the speed limit. The officer’s excuse for the stop? “Sometimes people get drowsy driving these highways and I just wanted to make sure you were ok and alert.” It infuriated me at the time, but I kept my cool and he let me go with that caution. He didn’t find any ginned-up reason to give me a citation. That was the first of three consecutive stops in the next year where I was stopped but not cited. That was a weird run.
Naturally he wanted to drive and so he did. It was not long until we heard the siren behind us. To make the story short, my brother paid the fine and than asked the highway patrol officer if he could take a picture of the officer. I thought it was hilarious,
About 16 years ago I was driving west on I-10 just over the California border and I was pulled over because he thought from the glow on my face that I was watching a video while driving. I had just bought a new Acura MDX manufactured with a large screen navigation unit that I was using and it was causing the glow on my face.
I told him it was just a navigation screen and could not play video. He said that it was illegal. I said that it was stock from Acura and that greater minds than mine and his had decided that it was perfectly legal. I asked him if he wanted to see my owners manual detailing the usage of the navigation. He made a face at me as if he had short circuited and said “turn down the brightness at night because it is unsafe.” I just answered with “May I go now or do you have a problem with the other standard equipment on my car?”
He conceded and I drove off thinking “What an a-hole!” Even after all this time is past I get irritated thinking about it.