Pulled over while roadgeeking

[deathtopumpkins]

Heh, you've sparked my curiosity, now I want to know where that was... 

[Bryant5493]

^^ It was at the beginning, right after where I turned the music down. It wasn't a big rumble and stumble, it was just a little bit of stammer. (He didn't really rumble, stumble, fall down.)


Be well,

Bryant

[Chris]

How about these roadgeeks   

Dutch Police pulls over a streetview car in Venray:

[Bryant5493]

^^ Lol, why?


Be well,

Bryant

[US71]

I've not been pulled over per se, but questioned a time or two while taking photos. Usually after I explain, they leave me alone... except once in Baton Rouge when I was taking gas station photos. The owner or manager came out and ordered me to leave.

[Ian]

The only time I had a run in with the cops, is when the cop gave me a dirty look when I held my camera out to take the photo. The cop didn't pull us over, so its not really a run in, but it could count. Here is the sign I was taking a photo of:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Iansignal/MaineTrafficSignalsAndRoadSigns#5377326545072767490

[mightyace]

The only time I had a run in with the cops, is when the cop gave me a dirty look when I held my camera out to take the photo. The cop didn't pull us over, so its not really a run in, but it could count. Here is the sign I was taking a photo of:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Iansignal/MaineTrafficSignalsAndRoadSigns#5377326545072767490

I looked at the photo and can't see what the problem was.  There was certainly no visible "threat to national security" there!

[Ian]

The only time I had a run in with the cops, is when the cop gave me a dirty look when I held my camera out to take the photo. The cop didn't pull us over, so its not really a run in, but it could count. Here is the sign I was taking a photo of:
http://picasaweb.google.com/Iansignal/MaineTrafficSignalsAndRoadSigns#5377326545072767490

I looked at the photo and can't see what the problem was.  There was certainly no visible "threat to national security" there!

There's no problem with the sign. I guess he just thought it was odd since I was only a kid and was taking photos of road signs. I guess that may come out to the cop as "bizzare".

[Hellfighter]

I got pulled over, but I was speeding! 

[leifvanderwall]

That's something I've always been afraid of while roadgeeking. How do you tell an officer "I'm just trying to see where this road ends"? The cop would never believe you anyways, so I might be tempted to lie a little bit. "I was just going to get a couple of burgers at Wendy's" Of course, I would get in worse trouble once the cop finds out the address on my driver's license is a hundred miles away.

[Scott5114]

One time my mom and I were roadgeeking on SH-66 when we got pulled over for speeding around Luther. The cop sort of asked what we were doing, though in more of a curious than demanding way. We just sort of said we were checking out Route 66 and that seemed good enough for him.

By the way, my mom was the one driving. She's such a good influence.

[corco]

We just sort of said we were checking out Route 66 and that seemed good enough for him.

I have a hunch that line works better then any other one- plenty of non-roadgeeks check out old Route 66.

It's good to have a website, I think. Most cops these days have an internet in their car, so if I were to get pulled over on suspicion and the cop didn't believe me,  I'd say "Well, check out wyomingroutes.org- that's my website" and he'd see I'm just insane and not a threat to national security

[Scott5114]

I'd be afraid they'd see the pictures and try to cite me for distracted driving :roll:

[Avalanchez71]

I would not consent to a search.

[iBallasticwolf2]

I also tend to get my camera out of sight when I see a cop car around, but that's mostly because they might think you're doing different things than driving (like using a cell phone is forbidden while driving).

Did you guys also note (talking about the post 9-11 paranoia), that Google Streetview does not cover the bridges to Manhattan? Only the on/offramps, but it stops on the bridge itself...

I thought I was the only one who noticed that. The GW bridge doesn't have GSV. Also all of the Staten Island bridges don't have GSV. There might be some other NYC bridges without streetview.

[jakeroot]

I would not consent to a search.

I'm no admin, but I don't think this post meets AARoads' "useful contribution" article, which requires new posts to old threads to be, uhh, useful. At least some context would have been nice.

[BrynM65]

It's not unique to the USA - over here in Merrie ol' England, I spent a day up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and spent several hours doing trips through the central area, particularly paying attention to the double-deck section of the Central Motorway (the longest double decker expressway in the UK, at all of maybe 0.75 miles).

Two days later, bearing in mind I live over 100 miles away from Newcastle and it's in a different police jurisdiction, two officers from my own police force area came to question me about what I was doing in Newcastle. I ended up showing them my then website, and they went away happy.

I found it easier to take photos in London, even immediately outside of Parliament. The paranoia levels are absurd.

[PHLBOS]

in part, they get confused as to why we would want to photograph such things as signs and signals...but in part, because crime is up, coupled with post-9-11 paranoia over unknown strangers taking photos of things

(railfans have encountered the same thing from the railroad cops in recent years...paranoia over harmless picture taking...maybe the rail cops are afraid the bad guys are somehow involved and getting piccys of the rail network to determine what nasty things can be done to us and where...who knows...)

Aviation enthusiasts (aka plane spotters) have encountered similar as well; especially right after 9/11/2001.  While some encounters at airports have waned (one known PHL spotter (not me) talked with one of the Philadelphia Police lieutenants regarding such and things have gotten better over at PHL); some have not. 

Even today, should one try to take pictures of planes around EWR at the nearby Ikea Lot in Newark; one can still expect police to show up and harass one stating that they "can't take pictures of planes".

[GCrites]

When I did an autocross at Wimington (OH) Airpark, they told us specifically not to take pictures of the parked airplanes.

edit: changed "on" to "of"

[rickmastfan67]

I would not consent to a search.

I'm no admin, but I don't think this post meets AARoads' "useful contribution" article, which requires new posts to old threads to be, uhh, useful. At least some context would have been nice.

We'll let it pass this time because it allowed some people to post 'useful' posts after his who might have not seen this thread in the first place.

[freebrickproductions]

Never really been stopped by police while road geeking, but one time I was taking pictures of traffic lights on Redstone Arsenal when a police officer showed up and said I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the traffic lights for "security reasons". Fortunately, they did not ask me to delete my photos.

Most of my encounters with the police have been while I've been railfanning. Usually, it's because someone sees me standing trackside and calls the police on me because they think I'm acting suspicious or suicidal. However, my encounters with the police have left me with a couple of funny stories, including one where I found out I have a doppelganger.

[Mergingtraffic]

I was on Roosevelt Blvd in Philly, car pulled up onto the grassy median between the local and express lanes to take a pic of this sign:



After I took the pic with my iPhone, a cop drove up to ask if everything was ok and I said yes and pretended to check my tires and then got in my car and on I went.

I figured if the cop questioned me more I'd just tell them I take pics of roads scenes and signs and show them my iPhone which has tons of sign pics on it. I figured I'd be on a list of stories cops have heard over the years..."this one time I stopped a guy who takes pics of roads signs..."

[Pete from Boston]

I've gotten questioned just exploring more than photographing anything.  In April my sleep was off one night and I was wide awake at 2am and decided to go see how much snow was left in the big piles in South Boston.  Apparently this is Not Alright and a state trooper started following me out of there, at which point I did the standard defuse of asking him for directions.   

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I've never been quizzed by cops but I did have one irritable neighbor demand to know what I was taking pictures of once.

[6a]

He then told me I fit a description of a robbery suspect: black male, blue shirt (I had on a blue hoodie) and a white car (I drive a white Dodge Neon).

The other officer, I guess, trying to make conversation asked me what I was doing with my camera. I told him I take pictures and video of different roads and put it up on YouTube. He then said, "That's it?" I said, "Yes."

This goes back some six years to the first post, but the "fit a description" thing is shaky as hell, and there is no such thing as an officer "making conversation" during an encounter.