Mug Shot

When I was in Denver this summer for my nephew's bar mitzvah, my mom, her husband, and I rented a car to get around in.

On our way from the airport to the hotel, we drove through busy Denver traffic on a Friday afternoon. I drove and my mom navigated, based on directions she'd printed out from Mapquest or Googlemaps or something. (I don't do GPS. (Long story.)) I don't like driving in metropolitan traffic, so I wasn't the most relaxed driver.

Near the end of our journey, we were on a highway-like road with exits, and as we neared our exit for the hotel, I needed to speed up to pass someone on the right so that I could make the exit.

To add to the excitement, we were in a construction zone, so the speed limit was something ridiculous like 25.


As I sped up to pass this annoying car who was in my way, I saw a flash from the side of the road. A camera flash? It seemed to come from a vehicle parked on the shoulder.

Uh-oh, I thought. I think they may have used their new-fangled pict-o-scope image thingies to catch me speeding. I planned to mention it to my brother and ask if that's how they caught speeders out here in CO, but then I got distracted by the fun family weekend.

++++

About a month later I got a letter from the rental car company. The car I had been driving had been ticketed for a moving violation, or something like that, from the Sheridan police department. They'd forwarded my information on to the police, so they would be banging down my door and roughing me up soon. And just to rub it in, the rental company tacked on an extra $15 fee.

About a month after that I got a letter from the Sheridan police. I'd been nabbed going 51 in a 40 zone, 11 mph over the limit. Thankfully, the fine was only $80. (In Illinois, speeding in a construction zone is $375.)

I have to admit the Sheridan police department has an efficient convenient online payment website, so it was relatively easy and painless to pay with my credit card.

And just to make sure I didn't try to weasel out of the fine, they included that very picture from the moment I saw that camera flash. The photo was in the letter they sent me and on the payment website.


Yep, that's me, in my granny driving shades, with my mom beside me and her husband in the back.

Not my proudest moment.