The Raging PERL MAN
Michael During the week of the American national holiday on July 4th, many companies in Silicon Valley were closed due to the ongoing economic crisis, and the streets were unusually empty. So, one morning, I drove quickly to the office, which is located 60 km south of San Francisco in Mountain View. On Highway 101, as usual in the leftmost of four lanes, just before the Mountain View exit, I suddenly saw a police car appear in the rearview mirror and routinely slowed down to the prescribed 65 miles per hour (about 100 km/h).
After following the "PERL MAN" for a while, who didn't seem to notice and was leisurely drinking his coffee from a commuter mug, the cop suddenly turned on his siren. At first, I assumed he just wanted to pass, so I moved to the next right lane. But he followed, and in the USA, that means: pull over to the right shoulder and prepare to be pulled over. Since routine checks are not allowed in the USA, it generally means you've done something wrong and will have to pay a fine.
So I changed lane by lane to the right, slowed down, and finally stopped on the unpaved shoulder of Highway 101. When the cop got out and approached the car on the passenger side, I rolled down the window and took out my driver's license, insurance certificate, and vehicle registration from my wallet. The cop leaned in through the window and informed me that he had stopped me because someone had called the police station and complained about the "PERL MAN" for "reckless driving." I was unaware of any wrongdoing, insisted that I was driving as fast as usual, and truthfully answered "no" when asked if I had consumed alcohol or taken drugs that morning. Then he wished me "safe holidays," and I was allowed to drive off, which I did, kicking up dust on the shoulder.
That's crazy, just imagine! An obviously mentally challenged person calls the police because they can remember the personalized license plate "PERL MAN," and the police actually find it among tens of thousands of cars on one of the busiest highways in the world! If this happens more often, I might have to give the license plate back and speed around incognito with something like "4-ZAP 437".
