Memories from long ago...
1977 Riding home one Saturday night bout 11pm thru the city of Wellington,had the usual good skinful and a buzz on,heading for Newtown where I usually lived with the current g/f, who'd just been sent away to work up north.Notice the police, or actually Traffic Cops as they were at the time pull in behind me and follow me. Stayed at the speed limit, and when I got to an appropriate side street after purposely by passing my own turnoff, turned left. The cops went straight ahead, and as I saw this, I did a u turn and went back up to the lights to turn right and head home again. The nosy pricks were still watching me tho, and seeing me do the u turn, threw on the flashing lights.
Just being bloody minded I thought fuckem, and took off...Down past the hospital and up to the next set of lights with them a hundred yards or so back...Traffic in both lanes and the lights red, so slipped up the middle...At the lights its still red, but nothing coming, so thru I go.....They were fucked then, couldnt get thru the traffic.
However instead of being sensible and sneaking home, decide to keep riding round for a while...Have a couple of good thrashes up and down Cambridge and Kent Terraces, then decide to go and visit another g/f I knew up the hill. As I pull up in front of her house an unmarked cop car pulls in quickly behind me..Cop gets out as I get off and walks over, and says, "Youd better take it easy or you wont be riding that bike again tonight" Getting the message I say thanks, and proceed to throw a chain round the bike.The cop goes to his car, his mate tells him something and he comes back...."Someone else wants to have a word with you.." he says.
Uh oh...in the shit now...A minute later the car that was following me earlier screeches to a halt. Out jumps Porky Pig personified. Big tall fat bastard. Waddles over as fast as he can with the worst attitude on his dial that you'd ever hope to see..."Were you ridin that bike 20 minutes ago up Newtown?" he snaps at me. In my usual smartarse , cant help myself attitude, I replied "I cant remember" He then asks for my license, and I go to pull it out then, change my mind and say "I haven't got it" In those days ya didnt have ta carry it, and had 7 days to present it to a cop shop. He realises I'm f ing him around and says I have to show it if I've got it. I just say I haven't. He goes back to his car and I take the time to push the bike off the road and up the path to the house, where the cops cant examine it without a warrant. Piggy comes back and wants to check my Warrant of Fitness, which of course I didn't have...So I tell him he cant go on private property. He gets the shits now, and tells his mate to call the police who are at a disturbance down the road.(traffic cops werent police and had less power, so we always gave em shit..)
Turning into a bit of a circus now with 2 traffic cop cars and 1 police car, and all the neighbours at the windows....The police turn up and gets right in my face telling me to be cooperative, and mistaking me for someone hes seen in court that week. I tell him I will be if the traffic cop will talk to me politely. He tells me to go and get fucked. Now the street we're on is at one end of a tunnel running through Mount Victoria, thats one lane and for busses only... Everyone hears an engine roaring thru the tunnel towards us. "Doesnt sound like a bus" says one cop , and steps into the street to stop the vehicle as it exits the tunnel. A sedan with a fairly straight looking couple emerges and slams the car to a halt. .While theyre getting a ticket and Im getting a few, another car can be heard coming through the tunnel. Out pops a Morris 1000 van with no muffler, and about 6 kids in it. It screeches to a halt for the cop, who's jumped out again, and immediately catches fire.The cops were good I must say, jumped in and dragged the kids out as flames shot up from under the bonnet. 5 minutes later the fire engine turns up and douses the car...Now its a real circus...4 cop cars, fire engine,kids being ticketed, and another car coming through the tunnel....
Somehow I wasnt arrested, (until months later..next chapter..) and retired to bed with my pretty little Wahine and a sheaf of tickets...Took off to Huntly the next day for a few months and forgot about the tickets...
This was the bike of the period, ratty as...no
wonder I was always in the shit.
1978 ,Riding home from work with my mate on the back, in from the Hutt Valley to Wellington on the motorway. doing about 130ks and get stopped as we left the off ramp by some d's. Werent even going to give me a ticket, but a record check discovers theres a warrant for my arrest due to the previous mentioned tickets that Id managed to avoid for a year or so...We have to be opposite a building site where we knew everyone, who were giving the cops shit from the safty of 6 floors up. I manage to convince them Ill ride down to the police station to be charged, and resist the temptation to f off again. I get charged with dangerous driving from the not stopping episode, and have to present myself to the watch house the next morning, where they lock me up till I have to go to court. I decide to plead not guilty, to be difficult, and get remanded for a week or so.
Aah its nice seeing Porky again...like old mates we were...He gets on the stand and gives the usual bs from his doctored notebook. I get to ask him almost appropriate questions ( caint afford no lawyer..)and accuse him of having a failing memory ( probably due to syphillis...)I deny any wrong doing or awareness of being chased, and state I anticipated the red lights a little...Its all to no avail, as Im found guilty , and ordered to pay the outrageous sum of $30! I almost laughed, but thought better of it...
Another time, same place up Newtown get stopped by the real Police for a check...Oh Good, bike comes up as being stolen. Now it aint, but there is another engine sitting in my hall cupboard, bought for $50,..with the same numbers on it...The cops are gonna send a van to take the bike to the police station, but I say I'll ride it down for them, knowing its not stolen and hoping I can get it back that night. Nows its a complicated story this bike ownership thing in those days...Nobody wanted a vehicle in their own name or address to avoid all tickets, and thieves finding out where you lived. I bought the bike from a mate who hadn't changed the papers from when he bought it off his mate.After I bought it he offers me the original engine..hmmm...Subsequently the rego was due while I owned it , so I just signed the old owners name on the re-registration papers.Tut Tut Mr Dean. Anyway we get down the cop shop and they believe me but want to see the rego papers, which are at home. Drive me there and I manage to not let them look in the cupboard.....talk about packing it! They see Ive got the papers so let me go for the night. Im on the phone every day for the next week trying to get the bike back....They used to send them to the DSIR (govt science center) for acid testing to see if they've been restamped.Finally they tell me to come in. The bike wasnt stolen, but it was in a house that got burgled, and the records were fucked up. However I shouldnta signed that name..Nother trip to court,. $100 fine..