It was one of those nights I was tired. I really didn't feel like doing anything if I didn't have to. It was the end of the night and time to head home. I notice a truck in the other lane and decide to run the license plate. The return comes back to some 1980s model car that isn't manufactured anymore! Okay now I'm going to do something! I get in behind the truck and hit the lights to pull it over. We turn north on a road and I'm waiting for him to stop. Then I notice something odd. The last digit in the truck's plate wasn't what I entered into the computer. Uh oh! I ran the wrong damn plate! Great! Now I am behind this truck with my lights on with other cars on the road watching me. I spot the nearest crossover, tap my air horn a couple of times and make a sudden U-turn heading back the other way. I accelerate a little to give the impression that I'm going to an emergency call. When I'm safely out of sight I shut everything down, take a look around and say "geez I hope nobody saw that!"

I told my supervisor what I did. He laughed at me. I told him I learned that little trick from my dad. He told me a tale once on night shift he wasn't paying attention and wound driving the wrong way down a road. So he activated his emergency equipment to make people think he was going to an emergency call then he turned off the nearest side street and hid. My supervisor told me a tale of how he and his partner were looking for a fugitive couple who kept eluding them. So they decide to hit their house at 3 in the morning. They black out the cars and get out. The partner is retrieving a shotgun which accidentally hits the siren button and now everyone knows they are there ruining the surprise!