[T3] '66 square sold :-%

[Greg Merritt <gregm@vwtype3.org>]

>X-POP3-Rcpt: gregm@maria.yourwebhost.com
>Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 09:58:57 -0500 (CDT)
>From: "J.L.M." <fishbowl@netcomi.com>
>Reply-To: fishbowl@netcomi.com
>To: Type III VW <type-3@umich.edu>
>Subject: '66 square sold :-%
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Status: RO
>X-Status:
>
>Well I sold the red car for $20.00 and "Other Valuable Consideration"
>(If you don't do that, the State of Taxes texas you to death).
>
>I made sure to throw in every extra thing there was, all the stuff
>that I've collected for the 12v conversion, all the parts that have
>been taken off the car, the 6v optima battery and the 6v die-hard, 5
>oil change kits, the Haynes, Bentley, Muir and Chilton manuals, RMMW,
>WCM, Sewfine, Scat, and JCW catalogs, a t-3-rich copy of "DB&HotVW",
>all reciepts, and a plastic dinosaur keychain.  Plus I changed the oil,
>adjusted the valves, and balanced the carbs for him.  If there is a
>way, I'd like to pull down the whole T-3 archive onto zip disks for
>him.  ("Other Valuable Consideration" was a very good trade still in
>the works).
>
>AND...
>
>While we were checking out the car, just as we had come back from
>around the block to get gas... THE COPS pulled up and HARASSLED us
>completely!  It was... Sudden... "STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR AND DO NOT
>MOVE!"
>
>We complied.  My friend had been driving, and I had been passenger,
>and we had already stopped and were already out of the car.
>
>The cop started searching me, and well, I said "I object to the way
>you are searching me."  Because he was being pretty rough, and because
>that's my right to say so.  So he did what I expected him to do, and
>dragged me to his car and patted me down... But he did not put his
>hand in my pocket again...  Then he told me to sit in the police car,
>and shut and locked the door.  Well, at that point I considered myself
>to be under arrest.  In a squad car, in the driveway of my own house.
>I told the other officer that "At this moment I believe that I am under
>arrest, and I can not answer any more questions."  Officer said "Well,
>mister legal scholar [1], do you realize you are on private property? [2]"
>I answered "Yes.  I own this house (address), and I pay your salary.
>And if this was your beat you would know me."  I was looking him in the
>eye saying this.  So he FINALLY checks out my driver's licence, checks
>the registration on the Squareback, and checks the address, and (duh) it
>turned out that I was the registered owner of the car, the owner of the
>house, had nothing for them to be suspiscious about, and we could (duh)
>go about our business.  Geez.  I hope they're ready the next time they
>call asking for a $50.00 donation to the "Association."   I did NOT say
>"thank you officer." [3]
>
>I did not appreciate the automatic assumption that something was wrong
>just because I have longer than average hair, and have pulled up in a
>relatively beaten car, at a relatively nice house.  Maybe they could
>have asked my name and address, looked to see that my driver's licence
>matched the house (duh), but the search and seizure and the fact that
>I was arrested (not free to leave, locked in a squad car pending the
>result of an "investigation") without cause really bothered me.
>
>What's weird was that since I did the talking, and these two cops thought
>they had something on me, they didn't even check out my friend [4] (the
>one buying the car).  Sure they looked all in the car with the flashlight,
>which had to be funny, because it was all clean and nice and ready to
>sell, the manuals and stuff were all laid out on the deck lid.  It all
>took so long that we didn't have any more time to talk about the car.
>
>So the bottom line is that I no longer own a Type-3 VW [sniff] and I
>have not gone to jail.
>
>Regards,
>James
>
>
>[1] I have worked professionally as a legal secretary.
>[2] Geez.
>[3] I blame the Dutch, for giving in to the Nazis.
>[4] The funniest thing?  All registration stickers are expired :-)
>
>----------------------------+-----------------------------
>The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of
>civilization.
>		-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
>


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