NICE highway patrol officer!

[Phurrball]

I had a good experience with the Police today.

I thought I'd share it, as it's easy to only focus on what we don't like about the Police on the roads, and forget the day-to-day help that they do render to ordinary people in strife.

Long story short - my daily commuter is an elderly, decrepit 23 year old Ford Laser (Bike sized engine in a rustyish cage anyone?)

The cage is jealous that my partner and I are getting ourselves a bike [hopefully this weekend...at last].

First the cage demanded a new starter, so the $ I had set aside to tune the ailing beast were consumed by that.

More recently, it has been warning me that it is unhappy with the neglect I have shown it; so it decided to have a tanty and stop on the Northwestern motorway - fortunately in the left lane.

Sudden stoppage, probably ignition system methinks [difficult to check without a helper]. A saintly member of the public pulls over and helps me out. Check for spark, no spark. Off with the dizzy cap...oh that would be why...

Points well past use by date, with deposit fit to call a small continent on one side of points well and truly negating any possibility of operation.

Saintly gentleman (may he have much good karma) sadly does not have tools with him today, and I can't find piece of emery paper I know is in car somewhere.

At this point a HP car pulls over. The officer asks what the problem is, and I explain and ask if he has any emery paper or a points file. He does not, and disappears to his car...

…only to return with a nail file. [Not sure if these are Police issue, anyone care to inform me? What is their usual use on the job? ]

A spot of filing, and the beast fires up. All parties heartily thanked.

The officer followed me to the next exit, and then departed.

Morals of story:

1)DO NOT neglect an elderly Kettering ignition system, especially when you actually know better [SHAME!]: This leads immutably to greater embarrassment than merely being seen in such a feeble cage, which alone is bad enough; being seen next to said cage, post breakdown, by 1000's of Aucklanders is, however, far worse

2)Basic human kindness to strangers still exists; we shouldn't be too cynical about our fellow humans. There are more ‘good’ people than ‘bad’ people out there. Some days it pays to be reminded of this. I hope I can give something back to someone in need of help one day...

3) Thank f**k for Police nail files!!!

As a post script, the officer was eagle-eyed enough to notice my 'unusual' WOF sticker [not hole-punched when issued for some unknown reason] No problems there though...apparently while odd, this is OK.

[XTC]

What are points????

[mstriumph]

...... and the police department paid you how much to post this here?

[Will]

What are points????

Exactly. Nothing in my garge has those things.

[MSTRS:Me]

I hope I can give something back to someone in need of help one day...

This is affectionately known as "Pay it forward". Feels good to do this, too.
Good on you for posting your positive (mostly!!) experience.

[SixPackBack]

Yeah right.......give it to us straight did you spit or swallow hehe

[raster]

My cage ran out of fuel on motorway as it does about 2 miles/gallon, must be those 2 little round turbo thingies(wonder if I could fit one on my GSX400????).
Coughed and died then fuel light came on, Probly just to spite me. I digress
Cop who stopped was very good although spare fuel doesn't seem to be police issue, Oh well.
AA to the rescue then had to jump start it cause battery was flat.

[Lou Girardin]

He must have been Damien the gay HP cop.

[oldfart]

What are points????

They's wot ya git on ya lysunce wen youse out rydin

[Ixion]

What are points????

I wonder how many riders still have a points file in their toolkit ?

[idb]

What are points????

Something you'll never find in any of my posts......

[Beemer]

Hey Phurrball, you and my husband must have matching cars - his is about the same age, 1984 I think! We used to have trouble with the starter motor on a regular basis and we kept a small hammer in the boot for giving it a tap. I was in Wellington once and it wouldn't turn over, so I got the hammer out, walked up to a taxi driver - who by now was turning white (not a bad trick for an Indian) and sweating, and asked if he could help! I explained I needed him to hold the key on while I tapped under the bonnet and the relief on his face was amazing! He thought I was so clever! It died in the supermarket carpark once too, so I rang my husband (this was when we decided to leave a hammer in the car on a permanent basis!) and he came down and got it going. This guy was watching and he called out and said "jees bro, I wish I had a magic hammer like that!"

[raster]

We had a Bluebird like that, same year, starter motor would stay running after car started, hua of a noise. Had to wack the solinoid to stop it. Wife used to get funny looks getting out of the car with a hammer.
Took me about 6 month to get around to fixing it.

[Phurrball]

Yeah right.......give it to us straight did you spit or swallow hehe

No one paid me to say any of this, I am on record on this site being a little firey towards aspects of road policing poilcy, and some of my negative experiences with HP officers. It pays to give publicity to positive goings on in the interests of 'balance' (whatever that is?!) that, and the nail file cracked me up, as well as getting me going.

What are points????

Exactly. Nothing in my garge has those things.

I know, it's tragic. They were mentioned in a sentence containing the word 'antique' by the HP officer...but the cage cost me $375, blows minimal smoke, costs sweet FA to run and insure and still flies through warrants. Hell, it even got 2 people, a cat, 2 pushbikes, a table and all the rest of my stuff from Dunedin to Auckland! [THAT was a sight!]

I do actually have a points file (Sadly it does not do anything to make the demerit variety disappear), but tool box was out of my boot as I put up a curtain rail a day or two before...Doh! This wee incident was my own silly fault [ashamed!]. The 'beast' is now very happy with the shiny new $11 points I fited.

...we kept a small hammer in the boot for giving it a tap... I got the hammer out, walked up to a taxi driver - who by now was turning white (not a bad trick for an Indian) and sweating, and asked if he could help!...

Yeah, did the hammer trick for a while on the starter, but a replacement one was not too dear, and pretty easy to fit myself. Your hammer must've been menacing, mine was a pretty tame looking tack hammer...but it still got some quizzical looks...

Should have probably noted that in the interests of diplomacy I had taken down and hid my radar detector, as I reckoned that it wouldn't be long before the HP arrived [took about 10 mins] (joke on my car I know - I try and amuse passers by who spot it...laughter is the best medicine after all.)

Hopefully I'll be commuting by bike soon...