There are a lot of idiots on the road. There are speeders, tailgaters, and people cutting across multiple lanes of traffic, all of who feel that the rules of the road don’t apply to them. We often witness such atrocities and wish that the universe would somehow punish their dangerous behavior. Well, you're in luck. Here's some satisfying instant karma for the worst drivers around.
1. Mustang Sting
It was nighttime, and it was raining really hard out. A guy driving a Mustang ran a red light and immediately got pulled over by a squad car. Over the loudspeaker, the officer ordered the driver to get out of the vehicle and put their hands on the roof of the car, which the guy did. Then, there was nothing. The officer didn’t get out of his car and didn’t go over to the vehicle.
Instead, the officer just left the driver of the Mustang sit there for about 30 seconds, allowing him to get soaked by the rain. After the guy was drenched, the officer got on the loudspeaker again and got him real good: "Next time you run a red light during a storm, don't do it right in front of an officer, idiot". Then, he just drove away.
2. Her Luck Ran Out
A few years back, I was traveling on the interstate to meet some friends who attended a different college than I did for a weekend. On the way there, I was in the right-hand lane, minding my own business, when a car tried to cut me off. I thought it was no big deal until she ended up clipping my bumper and running me off the road.
She was driving at a speed of about 80–85 mph. While I was on the shoulder attempting to contact the local authorities to report an accident, the other driver kept on going along her merry way. Five minutes later, a state trooper pulled up behind me and asked what had happened. I explained the situation, described the other vehicle—including a partial license plate number— and he asked if my car was still drivable.
After confirming that it was, he said, “Just follow me up to this next exit. I got a call about a driver who is out of gas and needs assistance”. We pulled up to the next exit, just shy of a gas station. When I saw her, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was the girl who was the other party in my hit-and-run. She tried to deny that anything had occurred.
Then, the trooper looked at my front bumper damage and her back end damage, assessed the paint colors matched, etc. Not only that, but her plate had the partial information I had gathered as she sped away. It turned out the girl had no insurance and no license. She got hauled off to the station on a hit-and-run, all because she couldn’t slow down and be a decent driver.
3. His Coffee Time Was Cut Short
I was in some heavy traffic going into an event center. I noticed a squad car sitting on the median, making sure people weren’t doing stupid things. Right as we were getting up to where the squad car was, some idiot cut across two lanes of traffic. He cut me off and went into a street with a "Do Not Enter" sign. He did all of this right in front of the marked cruiser.
I made eye contact with the officer as he put down his coffee and flipped on his blues.
4. This Guy Was A Total Blockhead
I was directing traffic at the site of a traffic accident. I was waving vehicles around on the roundabout because they couldn't go straight on, as the accident was completely blocking the road up ahead. One car pulled up to a stop directly in front of me. The driver opened his window to ask me something. He was now completely blocking me from the view of the traffic.
Therefore, I moved to the side and shouted, "I'm sorry, I can't stop to discuss anything. The road is closed; move off the roundabout". He drove a few meters forward—blocking me again— shouting through his window. I didn’t catch everything he said, but at the end, it included, "Why can't you just stop to speak to the people you are meant to be serving". What happened next was glorious.
A car promptly rear-ended him as he was blocking them from seeing me. They didn't expect him to stop suddenly on an otherwise clear roundabout. I replied, "That's why". I made sure when I wrote it up, the insurance companies would know who was to blame.
5. If He Only Knew What Was Coming
One time I was stuck in traffic on one of those lane-changing roads. There were boxes over each lane lit up with a red “X”, a green arrow, or nothing, depending on who could use it. We had two gridlocked lanes heading inbound, and there were three lanes outbound with a sixth lane closed to cars while they transitioned from outbound to inbound traffic.
One car decided that waiting was for chumps, so they peeled off the column of traffic and drove up the wrong empty lane. Two blocks up, we saw that the lane he drove into was a left turning lane for oncoming traffic. He had pulled hood-to-hood right up to a law enforcement vehicle.
6. The Desert Fool
I was driving through central Nevada on a two-lane highway. I was taking a sweeping right-hand turn when a new-ish Camaro with a very distinctive set of stickers on the rear window crossed a double yellow line and passed on the left. Doing so nearly caused a head-on collision with a semi coming in the opposite direction, and he nearly collided with the front of my car when he swerved back into my lane.
In that part of Nevada, the towns are roughly 60 miles apart. The next town had a notorious speed trap. About five miles outside the town, lo and behold, the Camaro was pulled over. About a half-mile after I passed them, the officer was apparently done giving them their speeding ticket. The driver of the Camaro was clearly mad, and once he was far enough away, he really took off.
In about five miles, he made up at least half or three-quarters of a mile. But this maniac wasn't don't yet. He again crossed the double yellow line and passed me on a blind corner. When he passed me, he swerved to avoid another high-speed head-on collision for another prohibited pass. When he did that, he apparently missed the fact that the speed limit dropped from 75 mph to 25 mph.
A county cruiser was sitting just past the 25 mph sign with a radar device and nailed him going at least 80 mph in a 25 mph zone.
7. Cab Calamity
It was a dark and rainy November afternoon. I was crewed in an unmarked car with my favorite partner for the late shift, which we were only an hour into. We were stationary, stuck in rush hour traffic, just trading the usual insults to each other when “Wham”! We got rear-ended by a taxi. If the face on the driver wasn't sweet enough when we switched on the blues, his fare added to the cabbie’s pain.
The customer told the officer who took their details that the cabbie was on his phone at the time he hit us and wasn't looking ahead. Instead, he was fiddling with the radio. We had to go to the hospital and ended up getting some workman’s comp, and the cabbie got hit pretty heavy with fines at court.
8. Life In The Fast Lane
I was driving on a highway at night in the fast lane. I was going faster than most of the traffic, but the guy who was coming up behind me was flying. I started looking for a spot to move over, but the road was busy, and I just couldn’t. He came up behind me and started honking and flashing at me. I was waiting for an opening but still hadn’t found one.
I finally got room to move into the middle lane, and as he passed me, I just gave him a head shake because he was being a knob. He didn’t like that. So, he moved into the middle lane, slowed down just to inconvenience me, and wouldn’t let me pass. He got impatient with that and then went flying off. In his desire to focus on me, he didn't see an officer pull onto the highway just a little ways ahead of him.
He passed the cruiser without realizing it, and the lights immediately flipped on. I felt as if justice was served.
9. It Was All A Bust
Back in the day, some local law enforcement agents had a racket going. They put a 45 mph limit sign on an interstate where the limit was 55 mph. They would pull over out-of-state cars and give them a ticket, plus hit them with a cash "bond". An officer pulled over a man in his mid-20s driving a nice sedan with out-of-state plates. The young man commented that what they were doing was against the law.
He was cuffed and invited to see the judge. The judge fined him $50. He refused. The judge sentenced him to five days in the pokey. He wasn’t offered a phone call, a lawyer, or anything. After five days, the young man left. He returned a week later with a number of his co-workers and arrest warrants for the sheriff and the judge. But that wasn't the best part.
The young man was an FBI agent en route to his new assignment.
10. He Was Met With A Big Surprise
I was heading towards Baltimore and was stuck in traffic on I-95. It was literally bumper-to-bumper, with no movement whatsoever. Some idiot decided to use the shoulder as his own personal lane and went speeding by us at around 50 mph. We all concurred that he was a complete jerk and didn’t think anything more about it. Then, about 15 seconds later, a cruiser went blazing by on the shoulder with its full lights and sirens on.
We, of course, went nuts, thinking that the officer was going to pull the guy over. Five minutes later, we passed the guy. He had indeed been stopped, but not by the officer we saw screeching by. Instead, he was stopped by a conveniently-abandoned car that was on the shoulder. The officer looked as if he was reading him the riot act. It was a fun moment.
11. They Had Him Seeing Red
I was stopped at a red light near a railroad. If a train was passing, the light stayed red. We were on a curve and a hill, so I could see the reason for us being stopped. However, an older gentleman about three cars back could not and decided to pass me and the car ahead of me. We were at a red light, blocked by a train.
The red light marked an intersection, right in front of the city hall and law enforcement station. It was also around lunchtime. As the guy breezed through the light, he was immediately followed by three or four flashing lights. It made the five-minute or so wait on the train amazing because I got to watch them chew this guy out.
12. Yellow-Bellied Bonehead
There was a guy in a big jacked-up bright yellow pickup truck who was tailgating my roommate as he was driving. He was so close that I couldn’t even see his headlights in my rearview mirror anymore. After about a block of this, the tailgater decided enough was enough and pulled out into the left-hand turn lane and passed us. But he made a huge mistake in doing so.
He pulled this maneuver in the middle of an intersection right in front of an officer who was waiting at the cross street. The red and blues came on right as we got through the intersection, and I calmly pulled out of the officer’s way. When the guy pulled over, the officer pulled right behind him and almost sprinted up to the guy's truck, yelling at him. It made my week!
13. Easy There Rider
I was driving on a highway that had only one lane going each way and that only had a couple of overtaking lanes, one of which was up a hill. People would get frustrated all the time with dumb tourists driving 43 or 50 mph in a 62 mph zone, but this guy was a special kind of a jerk. I was stuck behind a driver tootling along at about 50 mph, and the guy behind me was tailgating me.
I slowed down a bit because there was wildlife around, and you shouldn’t mess around with tailgaters. As we got to the uphill overtaking lane, he roared around me and got stuck behind the tootling car. Now he realized why I was going so slowly. He then continued to tailgate the other driver, and pretty dangerously. I was hanging right back, just figuring that I would take it slowly and stay out of trouble.
Suddenly, a motorcycle approached from behind, and I shifted in the lane so that they could pass, as I thought they would have a better chance of overtaking both vehicles that way. The tailgater took an opportunity to overtake, as did the motorcycle, which was against the law. I crested the next hill to find that it was a plainclothes officer on the bike, and he had pulled the tailgater over. My cold, shriveled little heart sang in karmic retribution as I drove past. It was wonderful.
14. Wishful Thinking
I was driving on the highway to work in the left lane, going with the flow of traffic at about 75 mph in a 55 mph zone. All of a sudden, this guy got into the left shoulder lane and sped past me—as if I wasn't going fast enough. I was just thinking to myself, "You idiot, I hope an officer busts you". About ten seconds later, I saw a cruiser pull out of the side of the road and do exactly that. It felt so good to see.
15. Take That!
My mom was a law enforcement agent for 30 years. Back in the 80s, my dad was driving through the city with her as a passenger when a car full of young guys pulled up. They were all holding up racy magazines, flashing the centerfolds at my mom, yelling, "How'd you like that"?! My mom owned them with her response. She flashed her badge back at them and said, "How'd you like this"?!
They got spooked and broke a bunch of road rules trying to get away in a hurry.
16. He Messed With The Wrong Dude
A friend of mine was an officer who was about 6'6" and on the SWAT team. He was a real nice guy, but you would not want to mess with him. One day, he was driving home from work in his personal car, which was a small sports car. Behind him was a 20-something nitwit who kept tailgating him, then backing off, then again speeding up to continue tailgating him.
It happened during rush-hour traffic on a three-lane freeway. He was watching all this go on in his rearview mirror, and he was waiting for the inevitable. Sure enough, the nitwit hit him. So, they pulled off to the shoulder, and my friend was just sitting in his car. The nitwit got out of his, shouting and threatening to beat him up. Just before he got to the car, my friend got out.
He unfolded himself and stood at his full 6'6", still wearing full black tactical gear, and just stared at him. The nitwit literally peed his pants.
17. Show Some Respect
I was driving in a funeral procession for my grandmother. There were about 30 cars in total. As we were driving down a two-lane road, a guy pulled into the oncoming lane and proceeded to pass all of us, doing about 30 mph over the speed limit. When he reached the front, he realized there were two motorcycle officers leading the procession and blocking traffic on side streets as we went.
One of the officers pulled the guy over. When we passed him, the officer had his finger about an inch from the impatient driver’s nose and was obviously shouting at the top of his lungs. It made a whole bunch of mourners very happy.
18. I Had Him In A Jam
I was working in transportation, and one time I was helping direct traffic in an area where we had a water main break. I had two lanes merging into one behind me. I would let one lane go for a bit, stop, then let the other one go. About 20 cars back, I could see this idiot in a BMW hopping back and forth to whatever lane I was allowing to go.
He finally crept his way up to second in the line. I was letting the lane next to him go, and he tried to cut over on someone. Well, I wasn't about to let him get away with that. The moment he did that, I put my hand up and stopped him and let the other lane go instead. He was so infuriated that I could see it in his eyes. He then tried to get over into the lane I was allowing to go.
I didn’t let him go anywhere. When he finally did get to go, he stared me down as he drove by.
19. A Brush With Some Karmic Retribution
My stepdad was a jerk. One day we were headed to get breakfast at a cafe. We lived in a small town, and the cafe was one block from the only stoplight in town. My stepdad was irritated that the car in front of us was going slow, so he decided to tailgate them. I was a passenger, and I saw the driver look in his rearview mirror a couple of times.
Then, all his lights began flashing—the reverse, third brake light, everything. I thought it was weird, so I took a closer look. The car—a Dodge Intrepid—had extra antennas on the roof and a strange license plate. I realized it was an unmarked cruiser. So, I told my stepdad, "That's an officer"! My stepdad told me to be quiet, so I kept my mouth shut and decided to let it all play out.
I didn’t say anything about the specific observations I had made. A few moments later, the car in front of us pulled off the road abruptly and immediately pulled back onto the road right behind us. I was now certain that my stepdad would be getting what was coming to him. My stepdad realized I was right and decided to put on his seatbelt, which he never wore.
However, with one hand on the wheel and two eyes on the rearview mirror, he had no hands or eyes to manage the curve that was coming up ahead. We crossed over the center line into oncoming traffic. The officer had seen enough and put his lights on. I started laughing uncontrollably. We pulled over. The officer came up and started talking. Then he said, "Sir! Step out of the vehicle! Now"!
At that point, I became a bit scared, wondering what was going on. The officer made my stepdad "spread 'em" against the car hood and then came back to where I was sitting. He retrieved the nine-inch buck knife my stepdad kept between the seat and the stick shift. The officer placed the knife on the roof and proceeded to pat down and lecture my stepdad.
This all happened directly in front of the local cafe where the entire town had breakfast. Needless to say, the officer was not impressed, and I got to see this jerk—who made my life a nightmare—get treated like the dirtbag I knew he was. It was great.
20. Red Light, Green Light
I was sitting at a red light in the left-hand travel lane. To my left was the left turn lane. On my left was a Tucson PD motorcycle officer patiently waiting for the light to turn green, which came. He was making the motions to proceed but hadn't moved yet when this utter idiot came blasting through the cross street, blowing the red light at about 60 mph.
The speed limit was 35 mph. I was shocked and muttered, "Holy cow"! as the guy raced through the intersection. The officer and I exchanged a shocked glance. He held out his fist—the one that was on the throttle a moment ago—and we fist-bumped. He flipped on his lights and siren and took off after the guy. It was glorious.
21. It Was A Near Miss
Where I lived, people tended to run red lights fairly often. One day, I was first in line sitting at a red light during rush hour traffic heading home. The oncoming lanes had a green light for left turns. The light turned yellow, then red, and someone ran it just after my light turned green to go straight. I went forward and stopped in the middle of the intersection because they were about to hit me.
I laid on my horn, and they continued turning left. As I was leaving the intersection, I saw red and blue lights in my mirror. There was an officer right behind me at the light, and he went after the bad driver. I’m pretty sure he got a hefty ticket.
22. He Made A Bad Pass
I was once driving on a very curvy road doing the speed limit. There was a car totally riding me and trying very hard to either pass me or get me to speed up. The road was incredibly bendy, and you could not see oncoming traffic, not to mention that the line was solid. He had been tailing me really close for a few minutes when he decided to go for it and pass me while we were on a bend.
Apparently, there was an unmarked car right behind him. As soon as this guy passed me, the officer was on him and pulled him over immediately.
23. He Turned Right In Front Of Me!
I was at a four-way intersection where two four-lane roads intersected. On the road I was on, there was one left turn lane, the middle lane—which went straight or turned—and the right lane, which went straight. As I was approaching the light, it was turning yellow, so I stopped, knowing it would be red long before I would be able to clear the intersection.
The BMW behind me decided to zoom it into the right lane, then made a left turn on the now red light right in front of me. He messed up big time. I laid on my horn, causing the officer on the intersecting road—who I could see fine from my truck, but the BMW could not see—to look up. He flicked on his lights siren, made a quick U-turn, and went after him.
24. HOV Is Not 4 U
Several years ago, a highway patrol officer provided a beautiful bit of instant karma for which I never got to thank him. It was the last few days before Christmas, so the freeways were packed. People were eager to get to the stores to do their shopping on their way home. They were so eager that on every day of my commute home, I encountered at least one accident on the freeway that snarled up traffic.
I was at a crawl in the left-most lane when a car weaseled its way in front of me. They didn’t signal. They just took advantage of the reasonable following distance I was giving the car in front of me in the stop-and-go traffic. I was alert, but I had to tap my brakes, peeping in my mirror to judge the distance between myself and the cruiser behind me.
Then, the guy who cut me off swerved over and crossed the double yellow lines to get into the HOV lane. The lights behind me came on immediately. Traffic stopped in the HOV lane, and the highway patrol car entered the lane. I smiled as I watched in my rearview mirror as the officer began to escort the other vehicle off the freeway. It was going to be quite a trip to cross all that traffic, and he was probably already in a hurry.
25. Cruising For A Losing
There was an unmarked car that patrolled where I lived. Everyone in the car scene knew exactly which car it was, and it was actually pretty famous. The car in question looked just like a slightly modified car, and the officer who drove it used that to his advantage. What he did was, if he saw a modified car, he would drive alongside it and would try to entice them to race.
When the other car would take the bait and try to race the officer, the officer would pull him over and give them a ticket. One day, the officer pulled alongside a modified car that just so happened not to have a registration plate on it because he had just been to a car show. So, the officer tried to get him to race. The guy in the modified car knew it was the unmarked cruiser, so the guy just floored it.
He left the unmarked cruiser in the dust and never got caught.
26. Undercover Brother
My dad and I were driving on the highway in Texas, where the highway patrol loved their unmarked vehicles. We were in the fast lane that had a 70 mph speed limit. Suddenly, this Chevy Malibu was doing 55 mph. My dad proceeded to drive up close to him in an effort to persuade him to move over. After about a minute of doing this, the car flicked his lights on for about two seconds to make us back off, blowing his cover.
He immediately moved over and got off at the next exit to regain his incognito status.
27. He Got Called Out For His Crazy Maneuver
One night, my wife and I were coming back from dinner. We got off the freeway at our exit, which had a leisurely 180-degree ramp down to a T-intersection at the bottom with a light. The intersection was empty, but the light was red, so we waited for it to change. The guy behind us, though, was impatient. He had been chewing at our bumper all the way down the ramp.
Instead of waiting, he angrily zipped into the right-turn lane next to us, then proceeded to turn left from the right-turn lane on a red light, aiming to then U-turn onto the freeway entrance next to us. He didn't get that far. As soon as he crossed into the intersection, two things happened. First, my rear-view mirror exploded in red and blue as the officer who had been behind him lit up his lights.
Secondly, the officer flipped on his loudspeaker as he pulled around us, and we heard, "THAT WAS REALLY STUPID". We waited politely for the light to change, enjoying the spectacle of the idiot getting pulled over before driving home laughing.
28. His Luck Ran Out In Luling
Years ago, I was driving from Houston to San Antonio. Anyone who has been along highway I-10 knows that the town of Luling is notorious for its over-diligent officers. The highway is generally a nice yet rather boring drive. There are four lanes separated by a wide grass median that usually has a barrier running alongside them, especially by towns.
For about ten miles heading towards Luling, this guy in a PT Cruiser was absolutely riding my tail. There were NO other cars around, so I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t just go into the left lane to pass me. As we got to Luling, I slowed down. It was a 75 mph zone that would slow down to 70 mph or 65 mph through the town. This dude went bananas.
He began flashing his lights and everything before he finally jerked over into the next lane and floored it. However, he never noticed the officer sitting on the hill that overlooked a good portion of traffic going in and out of the town. It was a dead-end road going up, but that officer wasn't there to pull people over himself. He would simply radio in which car to pull over to his buddies waiting down below.
As soon as I crested the hill myself, I could see those glorious flashing red and blue lights sitting there all pretty behind a very disgruntled PT Cruiser. I just waved as I drove past them.
29. College Cat Callers Caught
One day while I was on my lunch hour, I went over to a little park to eat outside. There was a cruiser sitting in the park's parking lot waiting for speeders, although I didn't notice it until after I had parked. I nodded to him and went over to one of the picnic benches to eat. It was just a little park in a residential neighborhood, so the picnic benches were pretty close to the road.
I finished, threw out my trash, and was just reading my book when a car of college-aged frat bros pulled up to the curb to catcall me for having the gall to be a larger chick sitting out in public. They roared off, but the officer peeled out of the lot right after them with his lights flashing. I just laughed and laughed.
30. Revved To Race
I was a newly hired officer who was still on probation. I was driving around in an unmarked unit with my field training officer. My training officer had been talking about the pros and cons of unmarked units, mostly pros. We were sitting at a light behind a Mustang when a sports bike came up. The Mustang revved its engine a few times, and the biker revved his engine a few times as well.
My training officer just stared at them with the biggest grin on his face. The light turned green, and the Mustang launched out, and the biker took off too. My training officer hit the lights and sirens. The Mustang immediately slammed on its brakes, and the biker was looking back while still accelerating forward. The biker looked forward again, thinking he was in the clear to take off, but a car was merging into his lane.
He couldn't decelerate fast enough—and the consequences were severe. He ended up dumping the bike and skidding a good 60 feet. There weren’t any major injuries, but he was transported to the local hospital to remove gravel from his skin. Both were cited for unlawful speeding, tire screeching, reckless endangerment, failure to use due care, and street racing.
31. Patience Is A Virtue
I was on a four-lane road with a painted median. I was in the left lane because the right lane fed onto a freeway. The left lane was backed up, and a car facing the other way was in the median trying to turn left. I saw a line of cars coming into the right lane to get on the freeway. My light was going to turn green so I could move up, but it wasn’t green yet.
I didn’t leave room for the guy to turn left when I stopped the car. He flipped out, rolled down his window, honked, yelled at me, and gestured at me. I moved up because the light cycled, and some cars made it through the light. A person further back left room for the guy to make his turn left. The guy slammed on the gas and got T-boned by a car in the right lane that was getting onto the freeway.
Then, I made it through the next light and was on my way.
32. Wrong Place To Race
My town had a lot of racers who were annoying and drove like idiots. One day, my girlfriend and I were driving down what was usually a busy road, but it was the middle of the night. The only two cars we saw were two racers barreling down the street, going the opposite way, clearly competing. The two cars had to be pushing 75-80 mph in a 45 mph zone. They passed us right as we were about to go through an intersection.
My girlfriend and I did our usual eye-roll and sighed. However, the intersection we were going through just happened to be the intersection that led to our local law enforcement station. There happened to be an officer waiting for the light to change so he could enter the station. Why two people would race past a law enforcement station was beyond me.
The second the cars passed, he flipped on his lights, and we stopped to let him go after them. It was great.
33. Endangering Children Is A No-No
As a kid who took the bus to and from school every day, I saw plenty of schoolbus-related rule breakers. One frequent example was of cars that wouldn't acknowledge the stop sign that swung out from the side of the school bus. This sign allows children to cross roads safely. On one glorious occasion, as the sign swung out and assumed a visible position, a bright red car swerved a bit to the left to avoid the sign and zoomed past it.
The road we were on was very busy and in the middle of town. This meant that cars and pedestrians were everywhere. One of the nearby cars was a cruiser. Its lights began shining brightly, and the sirens roared along with the cheers of those of us who remained on the bus. The authorities stopped the car that had endangered our lives, and we screamed out of delight for justice as we passed them.
One of the officers tipped his hat towards the bus and winked. At that moment, we believed him to be the greatest being on earth. The driver of the car that had wrongfully passed us likely received no less than a $500 fine and the loss of several demerit points. He also got to remember the victory cries of about twenty or so kids on a bus.
34. One Way Ticket
I lived in New Orleans, where almost all of our streets are one-way streets. Once, I saw an officer who came out of nowhere and delivered some instant karma. We get a number of moronic and braindead tourists who think the one-way road rules don't apply to them for some crazy reason. During Mardi Gras, my car was parked on the side of the road, and I was getting in it, ready to drive away.
As I started my car, I saw a brainless tourist driving down the wrong side of the road. I thought, “Ugh, not again. He’s going to cause an accident”. Not even five seconds after I said that, a cruiser came out of nowhere and threw on his siren and lights. The out-of-state tourist was basically a deer in headlights and just froze.
35. Thank You For Your Service
I was driving back to campus from Minnesota to Wisconsin. It was about 10 PM, and I had just crossed over the border. There were sheets of rain coming down. I saw a BIG pickup truck speeding up behind me. He was really coming up fast. That pickup truck must have been going close to 95–100 mph. I was slightly speeding myself, and he just zoomed past me.
I made a mental note that the Wisconsin Highway Patrol’s favorite speed trap was a few miles up the road. About two minutes later, there was the pickup truck—on the side of the road—with a highway patrol car right behind him. I jotted down the officer's car number in my head and, when I got into town, sent a nice written letter to the station for that area thanking that officer for being out on that particularly dangerous night.
36. Late For A Court Date
My ex was an officer. He worked the graveyard shift, so he was done at around 2 AM unless he had court. Then, he could leave a little early. He was on his way to court one morning, in full uniform and in his personal car. He was happy because he was pretty sure the guy wasn’t going to show up, so he got some extra time to sleep and was getting paid for four hours for showing up regardless.
He got off of the expressway and was making a right. There were several eastbound lanes at this intersection. The expressway was under the city slightly, so there was a street that matched it eastbound on one side and westbound on the other side of the expressway. The only way you could turn at the light was if you just exited the expressway and were in the two far-right lanes. That's it. There were no other turns. The other four lanes went straight.
So, some idiot decided that he was more important than the rest of the travelers during morning rush hour traffic and made a right from the furthest left lane—through a red light—across three straight only lanes—and one and a half right-turn lanes. It would have been two right-turn lanes, but the side of my ex’s car got in his way.
The guy didn’t even have the chance to get out of his car when my ex jumped out of his and ran full speed at him—in full uniform with his piece in his hand—thinking the guy was sloshed or crazy. He got to the guy's car, and the dude was terrified. My ex yelled at him through his closed window, "YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME"!
My ex filled out an incident report while waiting for on-duty officers to show up. He handed him the report and ran off to court because he was now late. Luckily, the defendant didn’t show up, and my ex got a free meal to boot.
37. Something Was Foul With My Fellow Employee
On my way home, I pulled into a convenience store down the street from where I worked. I parked my car, got out, and greeted the security guard from work, who I happened to see at the gas pump. There was a dark cloud hanging over this guy. He had just gotten off from work at the same time as I did and was in a very foul mood. I wished him a better day, grabbed what I had come for, and proceeded to the register.
However, he was already at the till, and he was yelling. He was going off on the poor employees and making a scene. His rant went on for about thirty seconds, and while I thought about stepping in on the clerks' behalf, I refrained because this guy was clearly unstable, and I had to see him at work. He finally finished his rant and stormed out.
I approached the cash register and informed them that not only would I decline to contribute to their quota of verbal harassment, but I also wanted to purchase some of their goods and two of their finest lotto tickets. Then, I heard some tires squealing outside. The security guard decided that doing a couple of donuts between the gas pumps and the store would be an appropriate punctuation to his verbal rant.
He narrowly missed my car on two occasions. He finally straightened out his wheel and headed for the exit. Meanwhile, during all this nonsense, the assistant manager had been in the manager's office on the phone calling the authorities. No sooner did the security guy exit the gas station then a county sheriff turned on his lights right behind him.
When I left, they had the security guard up against his car, putting cuffs on him. When I returned to work, I found out that the dude was no longer employed there. It seems as if he was in a foul mood because he had been let go. Unfortunately, the next security guard was even worse.
38. Speed Demon
I was driving to Miami for cancer treatments. A man in a white van spent about five miles tailgating me and constantly trying to pass me, honking his horn, and gesturing at me for going too slow. I wasn’t about to speed up or move. There was too much traffic, and construction had lanes blocked. Finally, he passed me and zoomed ahead.
Then, the state trooper that was in front of me chased after him. The idiot didn’t realize that I was doing the speed limit for a reason. We waved at him when we passed his roadside disco. In Florida, speeding through a construction zone is a double fine, so the ticket must have cost him about $500.
39. This Neon Lit Up And Got Burned
One night, I was driving home late from work. I came to a halt at a newly installed stoplight on a two-lane road. A Dodge Neon SRT-4 was in the lane next to me with some jerk behind the wheel. I noticed a fully-marked cruiser stopped on the opposite side of the intersection. Due to the poor lighting at night, the Neon was unable to distinguish whether or not the officer was present.
So, I gave a few light revs of my engine to the Neon driver, who immediately responded with a couple of quick revs of his own. At that point, I knew we had an accord. The light turned green, and the Neon screeched his tires across the entire intersection while I simply proceeded like a safe driver. The Neon had barely made it into second gear as the lights on the cruiser went on, and the officer pulled a U-turn to get him.
40. Nothing Could Change Hs Carelessness
There was a four-way stop a short distance from my house. It had been changed into a normal intersection with lights for each side. There were signs warning about the change for weeks before it happened and for a few weeks after. As I was pulling up to it to take a right turn, the light turned green. When I started to turn, the idiot on the left side failed to notice it wasn't a four-way stop anymore.
I had to slam on my breaks to avoid hitting him and his kid. I honked at him and saw that there was an officer sitting at the light right across the road from me. The officer waited for the light to change, then flipped his lights on and went after the idiot.
41. It Was A Slam Dunk
One day, I was on the way to work going down Route 91 in Riverside, California. There was a guy in the carpool lane who suddenly decided that they were going to cut across five lanes of traffic to get to their exit. In order to get to the exit, they ended up cutting me off, so I had to slam on my brakes so that I wouldn’t get hit.
The cruiser that was following me—which was making me paranoid, to begin with—changed lanes from behind me. He followed the car off the freeway and flipped on his lights. I was able to gain my composure after having to slam on my brakes in front of the authorities. Once I did, I found it all to be a very satisfying experience.
42. Girl Gone Wild
One day, when I was driving to work, a car started tailgating me. It was doing the “speed up-slow down”' thing. I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw that there was a girl in the passenger seat who was yelling at the driver. The car sped up to my bumper one more time. I looked in my rear-view and was getting ready to flip him off when I saw the girl absolutely smack the living daylights out of the guy driving.
He finally backed off and stopped tailgating me after that.
43. The Escalade’s Escapades
One day, I was driving on the freeway and needed to get over. I checked to make sure that it was clear, signaled, and changed lanes. I didn't realize that there was an Escalade coming up from behind at over 100 mph in that lane. He was going so fast that the lane looked clear when I had checked just a second prior. The Escalade decided to teach me a lesson by acting like it wasn't going to stop and plow into me.
Then, there were cars on both sides of me so that I couldn't swerve out of the way. So, the Escalade stormed up until the last possible second, then hit the brakes hard. He matched my speed about a foot away from my bumper. While this was happening, I was freaking out and wobbling the car because I thought I was going to get creamed. The officer that was driving one lane over and two cars back immediately flipped on his lights and pulled them over.
It was quite the roller coaster ride of emotions for me.
44. His Reckless Driving Blew Up
One weekend, I was driving from Chicago to Wisconsin. As soon as I got on the highway, a car to my left decided he needed my lane at that instant and pushed me out of my lane and onto the shoulder. He continued to zoom around and almost hit another ten cars or so, only to end up right back where he started. It was rush hour, and we were all going along the highway slowly.
Suddenly, I heard this BOOM. It turned out the idiot in the zooming car busted a tire trying to drive along the shoulder of the road to pass another car. A couple of other cars and I stopped—not to ask if he needed help—but to wait for the officer that was a couple of miles back who saw the whole thing. We each gave our testimonies, and the jerk was taken away in the cruiser for reckless driving and some other charges.
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45. I Wasn’t Going To Fall For That Trap
I was driving down a long stretch of highway at night. I had actually gotten a ticket for speeding there a couple of months prior; it was a notorious speeding trap. On this particular night, it was down to a single lane because of construction, which also meant that speeding fines would be increased. The posted limit was 45 mph, and that was what I was doing.
At some point, a big truck caught up to me and started tailgating me. He was honking a few times and flashing his brights, but I wouldn’t budge from the speed limit. He never stopped tailgating me for the rest of the one-lane ride, but, eventually, the other lane opened up. As soon as it did, the big old truck zoomed around me, accelerating to at least 60 mph before he was even fully past me. There was a cruiser sitting at that exact location, and he got pulled over immediately.
46. The Lady In Red
When I was in university, I took the bus to and from school every day. It took about an hour each way. The bus terminal for our suburb was at the end of my street, through a path and on top of a big hill down which you had to drive with all the other traffic to get into the city. I got on the bus, and the bus rolled up to the red light to wait for the green to pull out onto the main road.
The light turned green, and the bus started to pull out when, suddenly, the driver slammed on the brakes. Everyone lurched forward hard, and the driver laid on the horn. As I looked up, I saw this big silver Cadillac blasting through the red light. What was worse, the woman driving the Caddy was this dyed-blonde woman in her 60s wearing a red power suit who simply flipped off the bus driver without even looking and barreled down the hill.
The bus driver cursed her out loud, and we carried on. At the bottom of the hill, the authorities would often set up speed traps because they could catch people coming out of a curve where they tend to go way over the limit during the morning rush hour. There she was. The Caddy was caught in the speed trap. The bus driver pulled the bus over by the trap and beckoned a law enforcement officer, who came into the entry part of the bus.
The bus driver asked, "It still against the law to run red lights in this province"? To which the officer replied, "Sure is. Did she"? The bus driver answered, "Ohhh yeah". The officer handed the driver his card and said, "Well, here's my card. Get in touch, and if you're willing to come into court and testify. We can tack that on as well." The bus driver responded, "Honey. I get paid to go to court. I'll see you there". The whole bus erupted in applause.
47. They Were Real Idiots
I was a Border Patrol Agent near a few two-lane highways, with limited opportunities to pass due to all the hills and curves. I would regularly pull over old people driving their motorhomes at 45 mph in 65 mph zones. The reason I would pull them over was that they would have a line of 20+ vehicles behind them trying to pass them. One couple I pulled over was particularly angry I did so.
When I told them there was a line of cars behind them trying to pass, they got all huffy and told me that I wasn't a "real cop" and to take a hike. Their records came back clean, so I sent them on their way. About 20 minutes later, I saw them on the side of the road, with smoke billowing out the back of their camper. Another agent and I pulled in behind to help them.
As I pulled the fire extinguisher out of my car, the old lady passenger said, "Help, he dropped his cigarette in the back"! I went to the back of the trailer to help the old man battling the blaze. I managed to put out most of the fire inside, but it had caught the insulation or something, so the fire was on the outside of the camper as well. The old man asked if I would give him a hand with it. I had the perfect comeback: "I don't know. I'm not a real firefighter".
48. He Thought He Was In The Clear
I was driving along, having just dropped my older son off at school, and had my youngest in the back. All of a sudden, some moron came sliding into the front driver's side of my truck and slammed it hard. We both stopped. I was shaking, completely freaked out, and checking on my son, who, luckily, was okay. I looked over at the idiot and stared at him for a bit, trying to get my brain to work.
Then, the guy did the unthinkable. He just backed up and drove off. My mouth hung open. I was shocked. It was a hit and run. However, when the officer arrived, he walked up to my window, grinning. He was smiling and holding the license plate that the other guy had left behind. It was sweet justice as he didn't get away with it.
49. Witness
A car jumped a stop sign and immediately T-boned us. The windshield shattered. Everyone was rattled but okay. The other driver opened their door, and two empty brew cans fell out onto the road. The driver behind us—who witnessed the whole thing—got out and said to me, "Today is your lucky day". I answered with a blank stare, and he said, "I'm the Chief of Police, and there's no way you could have stopped".
50. Back Off Beamer
While working for the fire department, I was on a call for a multi-vehicle rollover accident on the interstate. We got on the interstate one exit away and ran into traffic, so we moved over to the emergency lane with our lights and siren blaring. We were about halfway there, and a BMW pulled in front of us, trying to cut through the traffic. He didn't even look.
I laid into the horn, and he came to a complete stop with his middle finger out the window. I'd had a lot of people do stupid things when seeing lights coming at them, but this guy was being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk. He got out of his car and started screaming at us. Meanwhile, he was blocking the only fire engine and two ambulances available.
People were really hurt half a mile away, and he was making his stand because we honked our horn at him for blocking us. I looked out at my mirror and saw a highway patrolman running between lanes towards us, and he was mad. The guy in the BMW was immediately taken into custody, his pretty car got pushed out of the way into a ditch, and he went to the slammer.
Sources: Reddit,
