Calling The Cops For Help

Philly cops are cool. They just have an incredibly difficult job. For MANY reasons.

I was stuck on Cecil B. Moore drive-right next to temple one day because of an illegally parked car. I had the whole region shut down. I called the cops and he said "I can't really do anything since there's been no accident". I said if I move one inch this way I'm gonna hit this car- and if I move one inch that way I hit that car. He said "don't hit that car because that one is legally parked. But to be very clear, I can't have you blocking the entire city like this" lol.

It was crystal clear what he was telling me to do. Drive right over the top of that illegally parked car and get his city running again. Then he drove off never to be heard from again.

That's life in the big city

 

There are two types of drivers. One tells war stories, the other tells horror stories. War stories are told because a driver is telling how he made it through a bad ordeal. Horror stories are told because someone who was afraid to go to war doesn't want to be a coward all by himself.

Your name is more valuable, more important than even your driving record. Want to protect your name? Bring that A Game with you every time you play. Do your very best on every single load.

Luck in battle.

 

Same deal with my Brooklyn incident years ago when I took out an illegally parked car , an NYPD detective showed up looked at the car and my trailer and said I'm just having this car towed and sent me on my way ...nothing was even written up.

 

I was shook up about it for awhile- but looking back now I totally get it. The city, she's a cruel place. That guy got a valuable lesson in what NOT to do in the city.

I've never even considered parking on the corner in the city after that. I know what happened with me happens every single day, many times, in the city. I told a few guys back at the yard that story and I was shocked that nearly every single guy had a similar experience. Lol

 

Had to call the cops once. Some little town in MI, I get to a right turn off a 4 lane road to a 2 lane and there's a sign that says road closed and detour sign that has an arrow pointed the way I came from. I looked and going forward would have put me 30 miles out of the way and 20 minutes late to pick up (was about 3 miles from shipper at the time). Cops showed up, blocked traffic and had me do a u turn. Guy was really nice and said he'd make sure detour signs were put up before that point lol.

Second time wasn't a call. Some place in south Chicago that my gps told me to go right. Which would have been great except I was about 1 ton overweight for the bridge 3 miles away. Cop pulled me over right after I made the turn and blocked traffic so I could turn around. Was also nice. Said he sits there most of the day to do that since gps has trucks turning there about every 15 minutes

 

I don't feel sorry for idiots who park their cars illegally. Its the universe giving them what they deserve.

 

One time the cops showed up when I was stuck in some alley in some tiny town in NH. This was dicey situation. I was stuck on an iced-up hill during winter that I couldn't get up. Trailer was light or near empty and it wasn't happening. The hill was also a narrow 1 way with a sharp left turn so I was totally blocking traffic in this alleyway. Eventually the townies got pissed and called the cops on me. I eventually got it backed out onto flatter land and found and escape but I tore up the passenger side of the bumper getting backed out. It was a real Chinese finger trap.

 

Dealt with many different police agency's in multiple states when I have been stuck for various reasons and they have always been more then helpfull to me.
But I have never been in or caused an accident in any of those situations.

 

I got a freebie and couldn't get my butt back over the gwb fast enough lol.

 

About a month ago I was in South Bend, IN Going to pick up some steel. The route I took into the town off the highway it appeared all fine and dandy until I seen detour signs for the road I was supposed to go down to get to the shipper. GPS routed through residential (shocker) I had been paying attention and seen all the no trucks posted on all of the other residential streets so I stopped pulled up a different way to get there.

I get looped around the state routes thinking ok all is fine and dandy. Get to what I believe to be the main truck route to that area because there's other trucking companies in that section. Well the turn is off of an overpass that they were doing work on. Its getting dark, been snowing for a couple hours so its starting to make the roads junk. I got turned around heading back the same way I went trying to follow detour signs and signs lead me to the backside of the residential I wasn't supposed to go down.

At this point I know its only going to go downhill from here as I just passed a no trucks sign over a set of railroad tracks. Luckily there was a bar not to far from there with a large back lot so I pulled in there to regroup plan C. Called shipper their directions are automated and haven't been updated since the construction. Called local PD Dispatcher wasn't much help. Told me that its ok to go through the residential. (Narrow 2 lane right turn to narrow 2 lane with a 53 ft and locals with quite a bit of traffic from where I was at.)

So I walked in to the bar hoping some locals would know something but of course bartender doesn't go to that side of town. We're talking like 6 blocks away lol So of course he gets me to talk to an older guy and he said it was ok. I had my reservations about it. So looked at the satellite view once again and took this back street behind most of the residential so I wouldn't have to contend with all the 4 wheelers around. All turned out fine.

Asked the scale house clerk what was the ideal route to get there and of course it was the route I was originally going to take down the street through the residential the first time. Signs said no thru traffic......

Sometimes you just have to trust your gut to get out of a bad situation. If its REALLY bad then yeah make the call.