Field Sobriety Test Trip Report

[IggyWH]

Background : For those of you who don't know Pittsburgh, The Waterfront is like a yuppie built area a couple miles outside downtown Pittsburgh. The site used to be a steel mill many years ago which was tore down and then built up to what it is today. It has shopping, dining, has a couple office buildings and some high rent housing. The Waterfront is nice, but the problem is, everything surrounding it is hood. Some of you may have heard the story about the guy who was killed after seeing the 50 Cent movie. This happened at the movie threater in The Waterfront.

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Last night I couldn't find anything to do. Most of my friends were being bitches and doing stupid stuff. I got ahold of one of my boys who I hadn't seen in about a month and he told me he was going to be drinking down The Waterfront. I work in The Waterfront and try to stay out of the area when I'm not working but since I hadn't seen him in a while and had nothing else to do, I said screw it.

I met up with my boy at Rock Bottom, which if you don't know is a bar/restaurant where they brew their own beer. I get there around 11 and have a beer. After we're done with our beers, he wants me to meet this new girl he's seeing. She's 1/2 philippino half mexican so I just had to see what this combination looked like.

We head over to Yokoso where she works. The restaurant is closed but everyone who works there is sitting at the bar knocking a few down. We sit there and BS for a while and I take a sip of saki since I had never had it before. So it's like 1 now and they want to close up for good, so we decide to walk down to Bar Louie.

We get to Bar Louie and I owe my boy a drink since he bought my beer earlier. I know he likes to drink Manderin & Cranberry so I order one for each of us and get his lady a Bloody Mary. We drink our drinks, last call rolls around and I eventually end up leaving Bar Louie around 2AM.

I was hungry as hell so I drove over to McDonalds in the same area. Their drive-thru is 24 hours. After sitting there for 20 minutes with 2 cars still infront of me, I finally said screw it and drove off. I didn't need to eat that crap before going to bed anyways.

I drove out of The Waterfront (which is enclosed by railroad tracks & a river) and as I drive over the tracks, I see a cop come flying behind me. I wanted to know if this cop was following me, so I started making a couple turns. I made a right down a side street, a left onto another side street and finally a right to get back on the main street outside The Waterfront. After 2 turns with him still behind me, I figure it would be smart for me to throw on my seat belt when I'm hooking the 3rd turn. I do that and shortly after making the turn, he throws on his lights and pulls me over.

*On a little side note here, why the hell to cops do that? If you're going to pull someone over, PULL THEM THE EFF OVER!! Don't go tailgating them, following them for a while when you know you're pulling them over anyways*

So I pull out my license and registration. I was a little worried because I only had a temp registration on me. My regular one was in my wallet which I didn't bring with me. He comes to the window and says "Don't you believe in stopping at stop signs?" At this point I'm nervous as hell as I've never been pulled over before. I asked which ones, he tells me infront of Target & Dicks (which are in The Waterfront and I passed on my way out). I knew I stopped, although since there were no other cars anywhere near me and those places were all closed, I didn't do a complete stop. So I replied back to him "I didn't stop" he said nope and I replied back with a little snicker "If you say so."

I was about 2 seconds from getting into an argument with this guy as I'm not one who can keep his mouth shut when I believe I'm right. I thought better of it though. He runs my license and tags which were completely clean, comes back and asks me where I'm coming from. I told him Bar Louie, he asks me if I had anything to drink and I told him 2 beers. I wasn't 100% honest but I didn't want to give him a checklist of beer, cranbery & vodka. He then wants me to count from 36 to 22 backwards. Seems pretty easy right? Well since I'm still nervous as hell, I count from 36 to 32 and then stop and ask him if he said 22 or 32. I was in such a hurry to start counting to show him I was fine that I didn't completely understand what he wanted.

By now, 2 other cops had pulled up. Here I am looking like some serious criminal when I haven't done a damn thing. So he tells me to get out of my car and tells me he's going to give me a field sobriety test. First I have to stand with my feet together, tilt my head back, extend my arms and touch my nose with the hand he says. So he shouts out different hands, obviously trying to trick me into using the wrong hand each time. I just take my time to make sure I'm using the correct hand and get through that no problem at all.

Next up, I have to stand on 1 foot, raise my other foot 6 inches and count 1-thousand-1, 1-thousand-2 up to 10. I'm still nervous has hell and the first 2 times I did it I couldn't get my balance. My standing foot kept twitching so I'd get to 2 and have to put my foot back down on the ground. My 3rd time through though I finally had my balance and went through it no problem at all.

Finally, the 3rd test was to stand on a crack on the sidewalk, walk it heal-to-toe taking 9 steps, turn around and do another 9. I flew right through that with no problems at all.

So now, while I'm surrounded by like 6 cops at this point, they get into a huddle like their NFL refs discussing a call. The main guy comes back to me and says "Here's the deal, you're probably over the legal limit and I could take you in right now for blood work if I wanted to" (at this point I lost it and started laughing at him. I almost wanted to say do it). He then asks me if I have someone who can come pick me up. I tell him yes, he tells me to call up a ride and "We'll take care of your car". At this point I quit biting my tongue and went at it. I wanted to know what "take care of your car" meant because there was no way in hell I was going to let them tow my car. He kept giving me the run around and then finally said they'd just move it up like 10 feet to a meter on the road. We started getting a little heated in our discussion because I was sick of being jerked around and then he yelled to me "WHAT'S YOUR POINT" and then I wised up once again, said I had none and I was going to call my friend.

So as I grab my cell out of my car, the cop tells me to pull my car forward to the meter. WTF? First I'm over the legal limit, now I'm allowed to move my car? Are you serious? He also tells me to move it while I'm talking on the phone... another no-no. I hung up my phone before moving my car. I get ahold of my friend (also my roomie) and him and his dad (who was in for the Pitt game today) came and got me and drove my car home also.

The cops left me, told me I could sit in my car since it was a cold night and said that if I tried driving off that they would arrest me. My buddie showed up about 20 minutes later and I was on my way home. While sitting in my car, I had so many cops drive past me. Like they have nothing better to worry about.

Can't keep a freakin movie theater safe from getting killed, cars get stolen and vandilzed all the time down there, yet they want to go screw with some sober dude. 2 beers in 3 hours and I'm over the legal limit, give me a break...

[SackUp]

Telling you had been drinking was your problem. Most people are going to lie about the number of drinks they have had and thus makes all the crap they sent you through necessary. It definitely sucks when you have to go through it, but it is better than having people driving drunk on the streets (not that this prevents all of it, but it does help - though don't need 6 cops to do it).

I've had the same situation happen to me before. And really it is much better than getting a ticket or a DUI.

[cardcounter0]

Wow. An almost perfect blow-by-blow of what NOT to do when pulled over.

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[IggyWH]

Well, I've been in a bar for the last 3 hours. You can smell it on me. No cop is going to believe you when you say you didn't have anything to drink. I was just being honest.

What I have a problem with is first pulling me over. Then, I'm not allowed to drive home because I'm legally drunk (and passed the field sobriety test), but I'm allowed to move my car? They obviously had nothing on me since I didn't get a ticket, didn't get a warning.

Only thing I can think of was because of the shooting and increased security, they had to make it look like they were doing something and I was nothing but a paperwork filler.

[MrTrik]

When leaving a bar or any other party area you absolutely must make good stops, wear a seatbelt and obey all rules. Whether or not you are impaired, you are a target for the police.

[Homer]

I once was pulled over by a cop who told me I had flipped him off. I hadn't -- he must have made mistaken me with someone else. He then said I smelled of alcohol and told me to get out of the car. I hadn't had anything to drink. He made me do some of the stuff you talked about in your post, then gave me a breathalizer, which came up as 0.0. He then lectured me some more and took off. Cock sucking pig.

[FouTight]

bah..

sorry we missed it, we were down at PF Changs last night, weren't out that late though...

Good to know that you can be a complete ass and not get in trouble though, I'll have to keep that in mind. you should be thankful

[Lazymeatball]

So you went to a few bars, than started to drive home and got pulled over, gave the cop a bunch of attitude, and still got let off without being arrested. What are you complaining about again?

[cardcounter0]

I think his complaint is that they let him move his car instead of towing it (and not beating him with clubs while they waited for the tow truck).
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[mmcd]

[ QUOTE ]
So he tells me to get out of my car and tells me he's going to give me a field sobriety test.

[/ QUOTE ]

The story should have ended here. Don't agree to take these. Ever. Once they decide to get you out out of the car and have you stand on one foot and say the alphabet backwards and all that nonsense, it's 90% likely they have already decided they are going to arrest you and just want get some more evidence. Don't give it to them.