The other day my wife and I were returning home after dinner around dusk. Typically I come off Hwy 89 on to I-84 and give the car the beans heading toward the mouth of Weber canyon. This time was no different. As I approached traffic in less then a mile I backed off and cruised a little above the 65 mph speed limit with the rest of the cars (partly because my vision wasn't great having had my eyes dilated that afternoon). Another mile or so up the canyon and there were suddenly flashing blue lights in my rear view mirror. As I pulled over I thought, "Huh, I wasn't speeding", and "Why didn't my detector go off?" I came to a stop, unrolled my window and put my hands on the top of the steering wheel and waited. The Highway Patrolman appeared at my passenger window tapping for me to open it. He asked for my license and I handed it to him saying, "Sure, what's the problem?" He looked at my drivers license and asked me to please slow down in the future. He had clocked me at 87 mph in my brief WOT event. With a cheerful goodbye he left me sitting stunned that I had been pulled over for having gone 22 mph over the limit and all I got was a smile and a "Slow down please". In 45 years of driving I've never gotten off without at least a written warning. Usually the officer looks at me and thinks, "Here's a guy with an attitude" and writes me up.
I attribute my good fortune to good living--or to an officer that was off duty and in a hurry to get home.

 

Nice! Or a Porsche 911 fan

Maybe a fellow Rennlister?? Ha ha.

 

Well congrats to you! Your title is amply named - what happened to you is indeed a miracle!

 

I had one of those experiences when I was driving out of Birmingham AL. Finally got out of city limits and took it up a notch just to have some blue lights show up in my rear view. After the warning was written we talked about the car for about 10 minutes..... I told him to hop in and we'll see what she can do. He declined.

 

Been there! On I-10 in North Florida a new Mercedes was jogging with my 993 at 95 MPH. A Highway Patrolman stopped us both. He talked to the Mercedes guy first who obviously was giving him a modicum of s--t for a long time. He then came to me expecting the same and stuck the radar gun in my face. I smiled and admitted that the gun was correct. He talked to me about the 993 for 15 minutes and gave me a ticket for $7.50 because my new insurance card was not yet in force. The moral to the story: smile and admit your guilt.

 

Wonderful!

I'd never admit guilt... but you can't deny anytthing either because you're calling the officer a liar and that won't work. I fumble and feebly admit I should have been paying more attention. Not foolproof, but generally successful.

 

It happens occasionally. I was driving my 996 Turbo many years ago and there were a couple of motorcycles ahead of me weaving in and out of lanes passing people and I was doing the same and basically keeping up with them. Then I peeled off to take my exit off the freeway and when I was stopped at the light on the off ramp a cop pulls up next to me and asks me if I was racing the motorcycles. I said of course not - just passing slower traffic. He says ' well your driving stinks'. Then the light changes and he takes off.

 

Sorry, but I have used the smiling and guilt tact many times successfully. Cops love to stop Porsches for no other reason than talk. I once slowed down from 120 to a proud cop who thought he got me at 80. I got off. Try it! Smiles and guilt mean a great deal to cops who think they are correct.

 

Lots of very good LEOs out there.

 

These are great stories. Always nice to hear about understanding cops (and hope that if I get stopped, I meet one of them). Drive safely everyone!

 

I have a similar story related to driving my 991S Cab up to Lake Tahoe last week from Socal. I was pulled over on the 395 a little south of Lone Pine by CHP. The cop asked me if I knew how fast I was going. Me: "had to be about 80, officer." Cop: "I clocked you at 83." He comes back after 10 minutes of probably learning my entire life history in a DHS database and says, "thank you for your honesty. I'm going to give you a warning on the speeding." But he wrote me up for a no-fine ticket because my paper registration had expired two days earlier (I was current and his database showed that, but I hadn't received the new paper/decal from DMV). So it's simply a matter of having law enforcement sign off on the new paper registration once the INYO county ticket comes in.

Good thing I didn't say, "you should have seen how fast I was going half an hour ago."

 

When I was still working, retired now, anyone I pulled over who was decent and did not have an attitude I ALWAYS just let off with what we called "warned and admonished", no summons. BUT if you acted like an asshat you got the asshat treament. Most people were decent and very apologetic.

 

Good story. Even more than your honesty, LEOs like/respect/appreciate good "situational awareness". You had that.

 

Cool story...wonder how they knew the speed, radar from air?

 

Slant a good highway patrolman can estimate your speed with amazing accuracy. The problem comes when you go to court to contest the summons. Estimates are not admissible in court, and w/o hard evidence back up such as a radar gun the summons will be dismissed.