I was on my way to class today and was pulled by the Raleigh Police, it took the two cops in the car a few minutes before they got out. When they came up to me, they asked if I had any ID and then asked if I had my registration, so I showed them the registration and one of the cops informed me that the tags on my bike fit the description of a Harley Davidson, so they thought the bike was stollen. After they questioned me about how long I have had the bike (2 yrs 3mths), they went back to their car, ran the tags again, and then came back to inform me that they had mixed up a few numbers on my tags when they ran a check on it. I surprisingly wasn't mad that they had pulled me because at least that they are checking tags and descriptions to see if any bikes are stollen, maybe to get it back to the rightful owner. Just thought I would share something that I thought the police department did was good for once. Ive never really had good encounters with police... so today was good.

 

Good to know cops are looking into that, or atleast say they are... I remember I got pulled over one night, and he mainly pulled me over to make sure all my paper work was legit, but said that if he were to give me anything, it would be for aggressive lane changing or something, I can't remember the terminology he used, but it was because I switched 2 lanes, and I guess didn't pause long enough in between lol.

 

they thought your bike was stollen and didn't come out with guns in hand having you step away from the vehicle with you back to them and your hands on your head. lay down on the ground with.... wait a second, sorry.must have been some pretty easy going cops.

 

must have those FAT fingers that hit 2-3 numbers @ one time. lol. mixed up a ?FEW? numbers... come on.

 

haha thats kinda b.s. they just wanted to c if your stuff is legit. if the tags came back stolen, they would have prob done a felony stop.... my mother who was a pig at the time was pulled over and they said that they pulled her over bcuz her plates came back stollen.... and she kinda ripped him a new one and told them that shes a cop blah blah, stolen car blah felony stop, yadda yadda.....

so they might just be pulling yah over and given a bs reason... not always the case but dont be soo quick to pat them on the back for pullin you over...

 

they are likely just fishing for revenues. far be it from me to speculate as to the activities of the law enforcement while they are sitting in their cars, but i'd be willing to bet they run a lot of plates. when my jeep got stolen, it took the dallas pd (dallas, of all places) two days to find it. they could have fat fingered it, but i'd be willing to bet they get way too much practice to use that as an excuse.

i had a similar occurrence - when i bought my bike i had a problem getting my title - seller mistakenly checked the "in excess of mechanical limits" box and i had to get a written statement from him explaining his error. title office said that in the mean time, i could pay $25 for a temp tag, so i ran that for a few weeks till i got the title kinks worked out. i was riding in north dallas and a cop pulled me over, said that those temp tags are only good for 20 days, and my temp tag was written more than 30 days in advance.. where did i get my temp tag? uhh, the plano tax office - see where it says "good for 30 days"? he was just fishing for 3 or 4 good tickets, because a stolen bike OR a fake temp tag, no motorcycle endorsement on the drivers license, no insurance, no registration ...but since i had all that, he had just wasted his time and mine. always looking for excuses to generate a little revenue for their city... however, having had my jeep stolen so recently, i'm very happy that they are so diligent about looking for stolen vehicles.

 

If thats what they told you I'd tend to believe them, I'm not sold on them trying to break it off on everybody. The fact that they didn't get you on the ground with guns drawn isn't too surprising either. The fact that you stopped says a lot, hell if you're on a stolen rocket and know it not too many people are going to stop. If they start to see you reaching in your coat or something then I'd be nervous but not too many other places to be hiding a weapon or anything. Hell when I'm in my car I usually can't read a motorcycle plate in front of me at a light let alone on the move to punch into a computer. Like you said, at least they're checking plates.

 

I agree with the last poster. In my experience most people on stolen bikes don't stop, much less cooperate and produce their ID and registration. Could they have been fishing? Sure. Is it likely? I really don't think so unless you live in a real rural area where someone doing 10 over is a big deal. In a medium to large-sized city there are so many people doing so many stupid things that there's no reason for an officer to fabricate reasons to pull you over..its like shooting fish in a barrel. I can't even tell you how many cars I see with expired tags, equipment violations, etc. or people just driving like idiots. After doing this job a few years, and getting the **** and vinegar out of my system (after about 6 months), most of the time people are literally holding signs out of their car saying, "Please pull me over" because Im not exactly looking to stop every car I see.

Kudos to you for stopping and keeping your cool, regardless of the situation.

 

haha yea a buddy of mine was driving his bike and the cops got behind him called for back up.... 8 cops show up the run at him with their guns drawn and yell for him to lay on the ground... crazy they thought his bike was stolen also.. oh well and also on the lane change, my other friend got pulled over and they basically just wanted to see if he was drunk (he wasnt) they tell him they "were trying to figure out what they could give him a ticket for" so they gave him an improper lane change... nothing to interesting i just wanted to share some similar stories

 

Did he change lanes improperly?