Quote:
Originally posted by Joe
I find that in my interactions with others, I seem to just get lucky, real lucky sometimes, and I wonder how. How did I get my job over a stack of 30 other applicants? Why did that cop just let me go without a ticket, when I clearly deserved one?
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Interesting that you mentioned that one. While living in CA, I only got one traffic ticket, though I'd been pulled over three times...
Several friends brought up the possibility of my being "let go" becuase of my being female and my appearance at the time of each incident. A guy who I was seeing and was with me on one such event was actually angry immediately after the officer left my window saying "You just be careful and watch your speed from now on." (He was not angry that I had not gotten the ticket, just his "certainty" that
he would have.)
Now, that particular incident, I tend to attribute to my being calm, pleasant and cooperative to the officer. I have learned that, if I have ANY idea why I was pulled over and don't intend to fight the ticket in court, it's best to just admit what I did. In fact, when I say the officer in question pull out of his speed-trap hiding place, I immediately pulled over and waited for him (not likely he was going after anyone else as the road was pretty empty).
When he pulled up behind me, he asked why I stopped. I explained that I saw him pull out, looked at my speedometer and realized why he pulled out and didn't think it made sense to make him chase me. We did go through the usual "Do you know how fast you were going?" "No, officer, I don't" routine but I did say "but I know it was faster than the limit" and he, of course told me an
exact speed.
I still DO wonder though what the actual reason he didn't ticket me was. I mean, he
was out there in a speed-trap, which usually means that they
do want to ticket people. Add to that the support for my angy friend's theory that I was a bit dressed up with short pants on at the time (points that he brought up vehamently in the following few minutes), and I just don't know. Oh, I did NOT try (intentionally or unintentionally) the infamous "crying helpless woman" routine on him -- I was quite calm the whole time.
<shrug> Who knows? As Joe said above, sometimes you just get lucky in certain situations and don't know, for sure, why. Is it appearance? Gender? Usually there's no real way to tell in any
specific case. Sometimes the favorer (in my example, the cop) probably doesn't even know why they "rule" in your favor.