Unplanned Meeting with an Indiana State Trooper

On Friday night, I was heading home from Indianapolis after the Fraternity Communications Association (FCA) mid-year conference. I left at 5:00 pm and headed south in I-65 towards Louisville in my rental car.

I wasn't exactly sure where I was at the time because the sun had gone down. I had set the cruise control at about 74 mph as that was the the flow of traffic at the time, even though a number of cars had been easily flying by me.

I was in the passing lane when I suddenly noticed a set of headlights turn on in the median and a car turn out onto the interstate. I figured it to be a police car, but I didn't think he was coming for me. I was only going about 5 mph over. I was wrong. He pulled up behind and I moved over to the shoulder.

The trooper pulled up behind me and I started to get ready all of the necessary information. He came up on the passenger side and asked me if I knew why I was pulled over. I said that I figured I was going too fast for him. He told me that my driver's side headlight was out. He asked for my license and registration. I gave him my license and offered my car rental agreement. He only took my license.

While he goes back to his vehicle, I start peeking over to see if the headlight is actually out. It looked like it was working, but I couldn't tell because of the "blinder" light that the officer had shining from his driver's side.

So he comes back and gives me a warning. A WARNING!

So I take it and drive off. As I am driving off, I get behind a car and see in the reflection off of its rear fender that I have two working lights. I pulled off at the next rest stop and checked my headlights...both working.

I don't have a problem with being pulled over for something like this. But here are my issues:

• It was a car rental. Why give me a warning? Its not even my car.
• If he took the rental agreement and saw that it was due in three hours, he would have noticed I was heading home to return the car.
• Why didn't he check the front of the car to make sure he got the right guy? It was dark, how can he know that I was the one he was looking for? He could have easily walked to the front of the car to make sure that one of the headlights was out.
  

Instead, he gave me a warning for a headlight that wasn't out on a car that wasn't mine wasting ten minutes of my time. I'm not saying he would have found the right car, but he could have been back on the road looking for the next person to pull over.