Background
I’ve always loved the street racing scene growing up. Then movies like Fast and the Furious and Biker Boyz were released and I was sucked in. I know when I got older that was going to be me. I didn’t care if laws were being broken as long as I was having fun and didn’t get caught. Well my first true test came during the April of 2012 when I was 22 years old and had a choice to make.
That Morning
I have just gotten to Houston on R&R from working over in Afghanistan that morning about 8am. I went straight from the airport to my house only to talk to my family for about an hour and then I went to grab my motorcycle (GSXR 750) out of storage. Left there and went to the barbershop and was headed back home about 11am.
I hadn’t rode my bike in a few months at this point and really wanted to open it up but I keep it calm as I didn’t like racing on ‘streets’ (I usually stuck to freeways). I was rolling down one of the highways in Houston (FM 1960) and came to a stop light. I was at the front of the pack of cars with this big white turbo diesel truck next to me at the light who kept revving his engine at me which basically meant “let’s race”.
I knew I could take him easy so I thought to myself let’s do this. The light turned green and he took off pretty fast for what he was driving. I took it easy up to about 30 MPH then took off pretty fast. Not even 10 seconds later I stared down the road to see a car sitting in the turning lane (that lane with the yellow lines) with the car pointed directly at me. At this point I’m approaching the car pretty fast so I started to decelerate so I could see what kind of vehicle this was. Once I notice, it was too late and indeed it was a Texas state trooper. Once I saw him I knew I was going to run. Call it dumb or my part or whatever but I knew if I would have been pulled over it would have been a bad situation or so I thought.
The ‘Chase’ Begins
So as I passed the state trooper I was probably down to about 85 mph or so and I looked at him. Once I made eye contact I down shifted and took off. Cutting though the few cars that were ahead I easily put a 1.5 to 2 miles gap on the officer and then I hit a lot of traffic. Once I hit the traffic I started to split between all the cars. Did that about another half a mile and then when I looked ahead I saw what would be my down fall. There was an oversized tractor trailer making a left hand turn. The combination of this huge truck and all his escorts had me in a bad predicament so I decided to pull over in the next available parking lot.
You may ask here why I decided to pull over. It’s because when you are in this type of situation the whole ‘getting away’ happens during those first 2 minutes for the most part, especially if the officer is pulled over to the side of the road. Luck just was not on my side regarding all the unforeseen factors.
I Gave Up
Anyway, once I pulled over in this parking lot I turned my motorcycle off, took one of gloves off and while I was in the process of taking the second glove off is when the noticed the state trooper was next to me and that there was a Taser pointed a foot and a half away from my body. The trooper screamed “get off the bike now” which I did, and to get on my knees. I was immediately put into handcuffs and then asked “what are your last words before you go to jail”. I responded “I can’t go to jail”.
The trooper then took my wallet out of my motorcycle jacket and opened it only to find my old but not expired military ID then stated “you are a sergeant in the U.S Army and you are running from the state troopers”. I said “I wasn’t running though”. He then said, “I saw you look back at me”. At that point I knew I was caught in a lie. I then went on to tell him I had just landed back in the U.S that morning and I couldn’t afford to go to jail due to the nature of my career. I had a lot going on for me but was still making dumb decisions as you can see.
He then walked to his patrol car after telling me to scoot over under a tree that was nearby so I could get some shade. At this point it’s about 4 tow trucks in the parking lot and my motorcycle was already up on a flatbed trailer about to go to the impound. I tried to grab my cell phone out my front jacket pocket but it was too hard given the fact that my hands were cuffed together behind my back, so I gave up on that.
After about 15 minutes of me waiting the trooper came back to me and said, “somebody with some stars was looking out for you today so I’m not going to take you to jail but your about to get these tickets”. Needless to say I was relieved.
Getting Put In The Car
The trooper took the handcuffs off of me and told me to walk over to the car. I got in the front seat and he preceded to as me a few questions.
State Trooper: Where is your motorcycle endorsement?
Me: I don’t have one
State Trooper: That’s a ticket. Where is your insurance?
Me: I don’t have a copy of it on me
State Trooper: That’s a Ticket…Well I clocked you at about 95 MPH in a 50 MPH zone so of course that’s a ticket.
Me: Dam
State Trooper: And you’re getting two more tickets for ‘switching lanes without signaling’ and ‘unsafe lane changing’
Me: Dam
State Trooper: It could be worse
Me: Ya, I know….So can I ride my motorcycle home?
State Trooper: Was that a serious question?
Me: No, not at all
The Tow
So I go over and ask the tow truck driver how much would it be for him to tow my motorcycle home. I was about 7 miles away from home so I was thinking $100. He told me $280 and if I didn’t want to pay that I could pay the at least $500 if he took it to be impounded. I came up off that $280 with quickness.
I rode in the tow truck to my house and honestly as soon as my motorcycle was off the tow truck I got back on it and rode the rest of the day and next week like nothing happened.
Court Process
Once I got back overseas I called around looking for a lawyer and for merely $300 I found a lawyer to go to court on my behalf and fight my case and he actually did a pretty good job. Since I was working overseas and not in the country the judge put my license on probation for the remaining of my overseas contract. So basically as long as I didn’t get any type of moving violation over the next few months then all the charges would be dropped. I wasn’t in the states so I wasn’t driving, so after those months pasted and I paid maybe another $200 in court cost all the charges were dropped and nothing shows on my record to this day. I’ll say I got off pretty light given the situation.
What I learned
I’ll leave those thoughts in my head…
I’ve always loved the street racing scene growing up. Then movies like Fast and the Furious and Biker Boyz were released and I was sucked in. I know when I got older that was going to be me. I didn’t care if laws were being broken as long as I was having fun and didn’t get caught. Well my first true test came during the April of 2012 when I was 22 years old and had a choice to make.
That Morning
I have just gotten to Houston on R&R from working over in Afghanistan that morning about 8am. I went straight from the airport to my house only to talk to my family for about an hour and then I went to grab my motorcycle (GSXR 750) out of storage. Left there and went to the barbershop and was headed back home about 11am.
I hadn’t rode my bike in a few months at this point and really wanted to open it up but I keep it calm as I didn’t like racing on ‘streets’ (I usually stuck to freeways). I was rolling down one of the highways in Houston (FM 1960) and came to a stop light. I was at the front of the pack of cars with this big white turbo diesel truck next to me at the light who kept revving his engine at me which basically meant “let’s race”.
I knew I could take him easy so I thought to myself let’s do this. The light turned green and he took off pretty fast for what he was driving. I took it easy up to about 30 MPH then took off pretty fast. Not even 10 seconds later I stared down the road to see a car sitting in the turning lane (that lane with the yellow lines) with the car pointed directly at me. At this point I’m approaching the car pretty fast so I started to decelerate so I could see what kind of vehicle this was. Once I notice, it was too late and indeed it was a Texas state trooper. Once I saw him I knew I was going to run. Call it dumb or my part or whatever but I knew if I would have been pulled over it would have been a bad situation or so I thought.
The ‘Chase’ Begins
So as I passed the state trooper I was probably down to about 85 mph or so and I looked at him. Once I made eye contact I down shifted and took off. Cutting though the few cars that were ahead I easily put a 1.5 to 2 miles gap on the officer and then I hit a lot of traffic. Once I hit the traffic I started to split between all the cars. Did that about another half a mile and then when I looked ahead I saw what would be my down fall. There was an oversized tractor trailer making a left hand turn. The combination of this huge truck and all his escorts had me in a bad predicament so I decided to pull over in the next available parking lot.
You may ask here why I decided to pull over. It’s because when you are in this type of situation the whole ‘getting away’ happens during those first 2 minutes for the most part, especially if the officer is pulled over to the side of the road. Luck just was not on my side regarding all the unforeseen factors.
I Gave Up
Anyway, once I pulled over in this parking lot I turned my motorcycle off, took one of gloves off and while I was in the process of taking the second glove off is when the noticed the state trooper was next to me and that there was a Taser pointed a foot and a half away from my body. The trooper screamed “get off the bike now” which I did, and to get on my knees. I was immediately put into handcuffs and then asked “what are your last words before you go to jail”. I responded “I can’t go to jail”.
The trooper then took my wallet out of my motorcycle jacket and opened it only to find my old but not expired military ID then stated “you are a sergeant in the U.S Army and you are running from the state troopers”. I said “I wasn’t running though”. He then said, “I saw you look back at me”. At that point I knew I was caught in a lie. I then went on to tell him I had just landed back in the U.S that morning and I couldn’t afford to go to jail due to the nature of my career. I had a lot going on for me but was still making dumb decisions as you can see.
He then walked to his patrol car after telling me to scoot over under a tree that was nearby so I could get some shade. At this point it’s about 4 tow trucks in the parking lot and my motorcycle was already up on a flatbed trailer about to go to the impound. I tried to grab my cell phone out my front jacket pocket but it was too hard given the fact that my hands were cuffed together behind my back, so I gave up on that.
After about 15 minutes of me waiting the trooper came back to me and said, “somebody with some stars was looking out for you today so I’m not going to take you to jail but your about to get these tickets”. Needless to say I was relieved.
Getting Put In The Car
The trooper took the handcuffs off of me and told me to walk over to the car. I got in the front seat and he preceded to as me a few questions.
State Trooper: Where is your motorcycle endorsement?
Me: I don’t have one
State Trooper: That’s a ticket. Where is your insurance?
Me: I don’t have a copy of it on me
State Trooper: That’s a Ticket…Well I clocked you at about 95 MPH in a 50 MPH zone so of course that’s a ticket.
Me: Dam
State Trooper: And you’re getting two more tickets for ‘switching lanes without signaling’ and ‘unsafe lane changing’
Me: Dam
State Trooper: It could be worse
Me: Ya, I know….So can I ride my motorcycle home?
State Trooper: Was that a serious question?
Me: No, not at all
The Tow
So I go over and ask the tow truck driver how much would it be for him to tow my motorcycle home. I was about 7 miles away from home so I was thinking $100. He told me $280 and if I didn’t want to pay that I could pay the at least $500 if he took it to be impounded. I came up off that $280 with quickness.
I rode in the tow truck to my house and honestly as soon as my motorcycle was off the tow truck I got back on it and rode the rest of the day and next week like nothing happened.
Court Process
Once I got back overseas I called around looking for a lawyer and for merely $300 I found a lawyer to go to court on my behalf and fight my case and he actually did a pretty good job. Since I was working overseas and not in the country the judge put my license on probation for the remaining of my overseas contract. So basically as long as I didn’t get any type of moving violation over the next few months then all the charges would be dropped. I wasn’t in the states so I wasn’t driving, so after those months pasted and I paid maybe another $200 in court cost all the charges were dropped and nothing shows on my record to this day. I’ll say I got off pretty light given the situation.
What I learned
I’ll leave those thoughts in my head…
on some
How many stories does this nikka have?
