d The police are the only group of people that are allowed to force anyone to buy anything. All a person has to do is break a law in the presence of one of our fine officers and they are forced to buy time in a courtroom and possibly pay for the supervision of a parole or probation officer. Of course there arealso fines and restitution you get to pay for along with your lawyer services. The police can make your precious time cost a lot if they want to. After all, It’s their job.

The reason I decided to write this little article is because I just recently had some friends turned over by these bullies and shaken for their milk money. There have been a few sneaky ploys lately that has caused some quite people to have to pay some extra money because of a few who seem to think it’s OK to rip off people.

See, my friends wife works in a restaurant and relies mostly on her tips for her income. One morning my friends were up at the butt crack of dawn to talk to a mortgage broker about a loan for their first house. After the meeting they decided to get a couple of biscuit sandwiches from fast food drive thru. They tried to pay for the meal with a ten dollar bill that Sara had received as a tip the night before. Then they waited for the girl to give them their change.

The girl in the window used her little black pen to interrogate the ten and to see if the bill was real. The poor thing failed as a black X appeared across the dead President’s face. “I’m sorry, said the girl, but this bill is fake.” I’m sure all three people present had the same look of shock on their face. I bet the whole world grew quite as they all stared at each other.

“Well, what do we do?” asked Tad to the window attendant. “Well, I have to call the police, she said, We have to report these things right away. It seems that there have been a lot of fake bills going around lately.” She wasn’t lying either. Some idiot out there decided since there wasn’t enough money to go around then they just needed to make their own.Somebody had made many twenties and ,of course, tens and were spreading them throughout the NWA. They probably never even thought about what might happen to the honest people they passed their fakes to.

“Can we pay for the food with another ten or with our card. I mean, we didn’t know that the ten was fake. We were not trying to rip you off or anything.” Tad was feeling accused because the girl was refusing to give up the biscuits, scared of any payment from the couple and with good reason. The manager soon came to the window and took the new ten dollar bill. After checking the bill on both sides and watching all the lines disappear, he then handed them their food and change. Sara handed the manager their info that she had wrote down on a card and told him to have the police call with any questions and that it was an honest mistake. Heck, they lived right around the corner and they were not normal morning people. It was the late morning hours and it was still three hours before they normally woke up. All they were doing was applying for a loan to buy their first house and get a treat like bacon,egg and cheese biscuits. They always woke up too late for those little morning treats.

My friends went back to their apartment and decided to watch a movie and try to not think about the hassle in the drive thru and/or fall victim to wonder and anticipation from the couriousity that was aroused with the outcome of the proposal they had signed at the mortgage brokers office. Yep, they were twenty three minutes into the movie when a loud knock erupted from the front door. Tad got up to see who it was and wouldn’t you have guessed it, it was the cops. Two detectives to be precise.

Come to find out, the fast food place had wrote down their license plate numbers and the detectives said that they were there to search the residence for a printing press or something in relation to counterfeit money. They told them that they wouldn’t open up any drawers and the whole procedure was being recorded on their belt radios and everything would be fine, you know. Sara asked if she could clean up a little and they told her there was no need. All they had to do was sign a “consent to search form.” Everything would be OK because they were only looking for such and such and not everything. Just something out in the open. Again Sara asked if she could go clean up.

They are great salesmen. They catch you off guard and take you for the first thing they find. They catch you off guard because many people don’t know how it works. Now, I am not a professional but I have had my run through the legal system just like many people I am acquainted with. We have all shared many stories that all shared one thing in common: the Consent to Search Form.

This form seems to be a special little shot gun method the police like to use. When you sign it you give up the time delay needed to clean your house up. They say they are only looking for a certain thing, but come on. They are cops. It is their jobs to at least get their pay for a house call out of you and as soon as they do, they arrest you and completely forget why they were there in the first place. They made their sale for the day.

That is what happened to my friends. the first room the detectives searched was the room were the kind was sitting on the end table, yep, in plane sight. This is what Sara had wanted to clean up. So how it happened was, they walked in the room, picked up the bag. Oh ya, remember they were at my friends house to search for a printing press because of a fake ten that had been slipped to her by someone at work the night before. (Man it’s hard not to be cussing) Any way, They picked up the bag and walked straight back out of the room.

As they proceeded to arrest the couple, Sara asked, “Don’t you need to check the rest of the house for a printing press? There is no need answered one of the detectives. They read them their rights and took them to jail. So, let us think back and notice the steps we need to avoid to avoid the scene. For one: don’t ever leave the place were the law is broken until you talk to the cops do matter if it is your fault or not. Never give the cops a reason to come over. Well, unless you want them over then that’s cool, but never leave the scene until you talk to the cops. Most cops are cool people. They just want respect for the job the do just like everyone else and maybe just like everyone else, they would like to kill two birds with one stone and not have to make a special trip to your house. Some times little added extra steps are not all happy surprises, don’t ya agree.

Number two: don’t ever sign a consent form if you know that there is something illegal in your house and in plain sight. Make the cops leave to go get a search warrant and get rid of everything before they get back without leaving your house. Take advantage of your time delay, don’t sign it away. No matter how better they try to make it sound. When they get back with there search warrant for whatever and your kind and glass is gone, then you are way better off. They can search all they want for whatever. You’ll probably have to put everything back. But it’s still worth it compared to the speeding bullet system they will try to sell you as an alternative.

Those two examples come from my friends story but I do have two more tips. Those two tips that I just shared with you can keep money in your pocket and your but out of jail while there is fake cash going around. Do not let yourself get sold for something minor when they are looking for something your innocent for. The third tip is the maybe the easiest or the hardest. It all depends on your kindness. The third is just don’t do anything illegal. Don’t even think about illegal. Think legal. If you live completely legal then you even get the power to skip the time delay and sign all the consent to search forms you want to.

The fourth tip is based on what I have heard. I have heard that the police can not legally set up road blocks on interstate hi-ways. They can, however, set up the cones in the road and put out signs about searches or road blocks or maybe a sobriety check point or something in one mile. Any time there are a bunch of cones in the road after a sign like that, the traffic generally slows down naturally, if you know what I mean. They always set up these cones and signs around generally slow traffic exits and most of everyone riding dirty takes the exit to the real road block. If you stay on the hi-way you will just slow down and go right through.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I hope these tips help you out. I love you all, OtisFugit