Was driving to work this morning down 19th in Tacoma going past that neighborhood known affectionately as "Hilltop". I look in my rearview and I see a lightbar. He's kinda riding close so I figured I'd change to the right lane. Blue lights, DOH!
So I turn onto a side street (I hate guys that get pulled over and decide to block traffic). Stop the truck, turn off the ignition, roll down my window and put my hands on the steering wheel. I'm a bit nervous because it's been a long time since I was pulled over, and, oh yea, theres an HK in the little pocket of the driver's side door.
Officer walks up and says "good morning". Looks at my hands and says "you can take your hands off the wheel....uh, do you have a gun?"
"Yes sir, I do"
"where is it?"
"Inside the door"
"Do you have a permit?"
"Yes sir, I do"
"Well I'm going to hold onto the pistol for now"
"Not a problem sir"
He opens the door, puts the pistol in his back pocket. "You can calm down, no need to be nervous"
"Well, its my first time getting pulled over while carrying"
"Yea, now that I think about it, I get a little shakey when the staters pull me over"...He then asks me for my permit. I hand it to him along with my Drivers license.
"Now the reason I pulled you over is because your tabs are expired....by 4 months"
"Oh Jeeze! Completely slipped my mind"
"Can I see your proof of insurance"
"Yes sir" I begin rummaging around looking for my little geico slip, find one and hand it to him.
"This card is a couple of years old"
"Oh, one second sir, I'll find the newer one" I continue to look around, and it would appear that the aliens have absconded with every copy of my insurance proof short of the ones that are 2+ years old. "Well sir, I think this is the part where you give me a ticket for failure to provide insurance"
"Well, I hadn't planned on writing you up for anything, we'll see"
He walks back to his car, meanwhile I'm doing the "stupid stupid stupid" thing to myself. I know exactly where the reminder to re up my tabs is. Right on my desk "where I'll remember to do it".
He comes back, hands me my info and says "I'm gonna save you about 800 bucks this morning, lemme gonna go ahead and put your pistol back." He opens the door and carefully places it back into the door pocket. "Thanks again, for your honest about this. I think the only thing more you could have done is to turn the dome light on. Now go get your tabs fixed. understand, rig like yours, expired tabs, in hilltop, lotta guys come up here lookin to buy rock. Thanks again for the honesty"
I apologised to him because I had just remembered that I never warned him that the pistol was hot and cocked. He looked at me with this look like "Why wouldn't you carry hot and cocked" then said, don't worry about it, I assumed so, and did a finger check of the chamber when I was back in the squad car.
"Yes sir. Just didn't feel like getting ventilated this early in the morning"
He chuckled, said "Have a good day", and walked back to his car. I do a 3 point turn to get back onto the main road, he waves and I go to work.
Overall, a good experience with the TPD. Was courteous and respectful. I got to go to work with a good story and no ticket.