40 More Handy Tricks

Step 3 Cop Repellant - Taillight Repair Tape

I believe in minimum consumption.
So my vehicle is old and rusty. That's not as common as it used to be. In fact I can cross the country and not see a car as decrepit as my own. That makes me Catnip for cops. Or Copnip or something.

Now that they've got the BIG LIST, cops everywhere are looking for excuses to pull people over.
Maybe they can catch an actual criminal just by checking your name against the list.

Immigrants named "Andrew's Son" flooded through Ellis Island at one time.
We Tim Andersons all look the same although we aren't related.
At any time there are lots of arrest warrants out for one of us. So whenever I get pulled over it takes forever. And then the cop is really disappointed that I'm not the bail jumping sex offender from Ohio or the deadbeat dad from Indiana. The good thing is after poring through the catalog of Tims gone berserk, they often feel less excited about the fixit ticket they would otherwise write me, and they sometimes let me go with a warning and a disappointed look.

The last time I got pulled over for cracked taillight lenses, I put patches of red "taillight repair tape" on them. Ever since I put the red tape on, No more random stops.
It sends a secret message to the police: "this guy got pulled over recently and they couldn't bust him for anything real."

Yes it's true. Just like you learned from watching "action movies",

COPS HATE RED TAPE!!!

:)))!!!!

Comments

[Alderin]

This reminds me of a pickup I saw in South Carolina, major rust, but it used to be a yellow truck. In the back of the cabin in the top was a message scratched into the paint: "This is NOT an abandoned vehicle"

LOL

[cheapchuck]

We recently had both cars totaled out by ping pong sized hail.  Toyota tail light assemblies are outrageously expensive.  I bought red and yellow repair tape, cleaned the surfaces with alcohol and applied the tape.  Several rain and snow storms later, the tape still looks good.  Another reason to avoid those "fixit" tickets is that insurance companies are used to seeing those little tickets given as a plea-bargain for more serious tickets.

[cavedueller]

I did this several times, but the tape kept coming off when it rained. Eventually, I figured it out. I cut a piece of tape to just cover the hole, leaving some red plastic around it, then coated the entire piece of plastic (and the tape) with Envirotex. That tape has been on my car for years now and shows no sign of coming off. It has faded to a dull tan -- I could color it with a red sharpie, I guess.