Caught in a Set Up - Part 1 Just the facts, Ma'am

This is part 1 of a 3-part true short story.

Part Two can be found here: WTF?

Part Three can be found here: No Hope for the Hopeless

Are you worried about government stealing your money in Washington? Fuggedaboutit! Look closer. It's as near as your downtown Clerk of the Court and County Sheriff’s office.

Caught in a Set Up

Just the facts, Ma’am

Part 1 of 3

            I’m driving the posted speed limit of forty-five mph on a road comprised of two lanes south, two lanes north, separated by a median. My car is in the inside lane, that is to say, driving alongside the median. Ahead, on both sides and in the median, are construction workers and police officers. A great deal of activity is taking place. I decrease my speed to thirty-five. The car behind me gets so close he’s practically sucking my exhaust pipe.

          A construction worker in the median to my left momentarily distracts me as he moves a large barricade. I look back to the road in time to see a blue-shirted man to my right step off the sidewalk into the lane next to mine! I gasp and raise my foot off of the accelerator, prepared to slam my brakes should he run in front of me. But the man stops and crosses his arms. Our eyes lock as I pass him. I'm cautious by nature, perhaps to a fault, but I’ve witnessed people run across the road before, ignoring oncoming traffic. Had he done so, I would have hit him. Either that, or one of the four cars traveling close behind my vehicle would have slammed into my rear end. Thankfully, he did not move.

            I breathed a sigh of relief. All of this took place in a matter of seconds. Ahead of me, a police officer waved me into a parking lot. Driving well below the speed limit, and under the impression there was a detour around the construction zone, I looked for other officers in the parking lot to direct us (me and the four vehicles following). We were sent into adjacent parking spaces.

            A police officer approached my window and, after reviewing my required identification documentation, informed me I had violated a law.

         I failed to yield to a pedestrian.

          Each of the vehicles following was being ticketed for the same infraction. The fine totaled One Hundred Sixty Dollars. Each. Orange County just made $800.00 in a matter of minutes.

            There will be a fight.

Part 1 of 3