A friend sent me the following story, which I thought I would share with you all.
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?Yesterday was ... errrr .... interesting.
Having had loads of grief at SVA with the Ace (it took 3 attempts to get it through) we then started the registration process. Took all the paperwork into the local DVLA office(Nottingham) the next day and were told we needed an inspection, and we needed to present the car on the 5th June at 3:20 pm, and it had to be trailered there.
Ok, we can do that, but the Nottingham SVA office doesn't have a car park big enough to park a Previa and trailer in, or even to turn one round in, and it has double yellow lines everywhere other than in its puny car park.
So, I pulled up outside at 3:00pm only to find another van and trailer parked outside, so, figuring he was also there for an inspection, and given that I was 20 minutes early, I pulled up some distance behind to wait for his inspection to finish.
I'd been stopped a matter of seconds, in fact I hadn't even turned the engine off, when a police transit came creaming up the road beside me and screeched to a halt across the road in front of me, blocking me in. A second one screeched to a halt beside me and a third one arrived, followed by a traffic car, and pulled across the road behind me, completely blocking the road.
At the same time a Freelander, which was trying to leave the DVLA office, decided it would be a good idea to try to get past the police vans by driving up on the grass verge. He suddenly got pounced on by two officers, one of whom put a baton through his windscreen and one of whom put another baton through his side window. He was promptly arrested and dragged off in handcuffs.
Simulteanous to that little piece of action, two more officers jumped out of the van beside me, drew their batons, and ran over towards me, and with perfect symetry one of them shouted "Don't Move" and the other shouted "Get out of the car". Huh? I have no idea what this is all about and now I have no idea which one of them to listen to!
So, I was promptly placed in handcuffs and sat in the back of one of the police vans. Nobody told me why at that point, but they took the keys for the Previa and the Ace from me, and I could hear another officer outside ordering a tow truck to impound both my cars and the trailer.
I'm beginning to get a bit pink fluffy diced (edit by DD - next time I delete!) off now so when one of the officers stuck his head through the door of the van to "check on me" I told him I though this was a tad heavy handed just for parking on a double yellow line! His response was something like "you know exactly what this is all about mate". Huh? I don't actually, and I'm not your mate!
So .... I sit in the back of this van for about 15 minutes, waiting for someone to tell me what the hell is going on when someone decides to check on my ID. His response, when they figure out that I am who I say I am, was "hmmmm, thats strange". Strange? Who's he calling strange ... and what is going on here ??? and who's the bloke in the Freelander who's about to buy shares in Autoglass??
Another 15 minutes pass and then the DVLA Inspector (the one I've got the appointment with) sticks his head through the van door, looks at me, looks at the office he's with, and says "what the hell have you arrested him for, the bloke you want is in that transit" and points to the transit and trailer that was in my way in the first place !!
It turns out that the DVLA Inspector suspected the the appointment in front of me was trying to register a ringer, and phoned the police with the information that the driver they wanted was in a van parked outside the DVLA office with a trailer on the back. As they turned up the only van (actually the Previa, as I took great pleasure in pointing out to them, isn't a van anyway) they could see was mine. They also had some information about a 4WD vehicle being involved (actually the Previa, as I took great pleasure in pointing out to them, isn't a 4WD either), hence why they were so keen to stop the Freelander.
The most pathetic thing is that in the half hour this was going on not ONE of the 20 or so officers moticed the white VAN parked up the road with a trailer on the back containing a 4WD Nissan Navara !!! What a bunch of muppets !!
In the end they got the right bloke and I was released, as was the Freelander driver, and they even told me I could leave the Previa where it was even though it was on double yellows. How gracious of them considering I couldn't move it anyway, it was still blocked in. One of them had the good grace to apologise and in the end I managed to see the funny side of it.
The DVLA Inspector, who's opinion of the police dropped dramatically in 30 minutes, even took me inside and made me a coffee. He didn't make them one !! lol
Anyway, on the plus side, the car did get inspected, albeit about an hour late, and because I'd had enough grief by this point they even rushed through the registration for me so I got it registered there and then, despite their assurances two weeks earlier that it would take a minimum of 48 hours after inspection to register it
Like I said .... you couldn't write the script !?
Edited by Webmaster on 26/10/2007 at 01:46
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