| Author | Message | ||
     Arbalest |
There is guy that stands at a heavily travelled intersection in Portland, ME. He appears to be somehow scanning the traffic as it goes by. He is doing whatever he is doing way to often for it to be a benign endeavor. Recently we came to the intersection, the light was red and he was near the light. We stopped short of the light, and he walked toward our car, as to get within range of whatever he was looking for. Fortunately, the light changed and we drove by quickly. My wife is totally freaked out by this guy. He has earbuds in his ears connected to a device in his pocket. He has another device in his hand that he points toward the target vehicle. Not that it has any relevance, but it is a guy of mideastern descent. Anyone have any idea what he could be up to? | ||
| Reepicheep |
I think there are services now that use optical character recognition to scan plates, then sell that data. For example to repo agencies, maybe law enforcement, etc. Lots of other ways to monitize that data. If I was willing to be a highly ambitious creepy privacy invading •••••••, I could have gotten rich building a perfectly legal business on it already. Which I am not going to describe here, in case I change my mind.  | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
A cop scared the shit right out of me once: I was riding along a nice little road to work in a rich area (Dover, MA). Out from behind a tree pops a man with a gun bent knees in a classic Isosceles stance aiming at my head. I WAS ABOUT TO BE SHOT!!!!! Adrenalin spiked and I was starting to duck when I saw it was a cop with a friggin' laser gun. What the hell kind of a thing is that to do at 05:30?! | ||
| Reepicheep |
I had the same experience... All I could see was a car (unmarked) parked in the median with a silhouette of an individual clearly in the modified weaver stance aiming something directly at my car. I eventually recognized that it was a cop in front of an unmarked car with a laser speedfinder, but not until I had passed the point of safety in taking some kind of assertive action if it had turned out to be some random yahoo in the median trying to kill me. I was pretty ticked too. (Message edited by reepicheep on May 27, 2015) | ||
| Sifo |
Locally, they sit in the grassy median on a riding lawnmower with their radar gun. They then radio ahead where they may have 3-6 patrol cars ready to pull people over in an efficient assembly line manner. To the OP, if you see him again drop a call to 911 and ask them to check him out. | ||
| Figorvonbuellingham |
I thought it was illegal for cops to hide. Something about it being a form of entrapment. Maybe just in my state. They have to be out in the open. | ||
| Zane |
Got my first ticket like that. Driving south on US 98 just south of Pahokee, Florida. Sugar cane clear up to the right of way. I passed this one lane access road on the right. As I passed, out of the corner of my eye I could see a FHP Trooper working a Vascar Unit, 8 or 9 FHP cars and one trooper running like hell to get into his unit. I knew they had me. I just slowed down, pulled over to the side of the road and waited for him to catch up. FHP Trooper walked up to the car and said "You were speedin' weren't ya boy". All I could say was Yes sir I was... Cost me $35 find and $10 court cost. This was about 1972. (Message edited by Zane on May 27, 2015) |
