Thanks for letting me keep my airsoft, officer

[Chubby]

Hey!

I left from Edmonton Sunday morning to visit my folks in Wasaga Beach Ontario for a bit. I decided to drive my car the whole way there because taking the bus would take too long and getting a ticket on such short notice would cost too much money. So I packed my airsoft stuff in with the rest of my stuff because I might pop on down to TTAC3 at some point while I'm here.

As I'm driving through Ontario, I finally hit that point where the Trans Canada Highway opens up into two lanes just south of Sudbury and it was about frigging time. Well just shortly after hitting 124 km's an hour, I get pulled over by an OPP officer.

After having driven this long, my bag and everything I packed into it had already been long forgotton. So he goes through his routine of telling me why he pulled me over, asking me how long I've had my car etc. etc. as he's looking over my license and insurance (I forgot my ownership at home) and then asks me "When was the last time you smoked pot, Mike?". I looked at him a bit puzzled and told him I don't do pot, and he says "Your eyes are really watering" and then I tell him about an eye infection I have.

Anyways, he gives me all of my stuff back and then asks "So what do you have in your green duffel bag in the back?" and that's when the reality of the situation hit me.

I figured I might as well be as honest as I can and told him straight up "I have tactical vests and an airsoft gun in there with the rest of my clothes. So he says "Do you mind if have a look?" and I said he could.

So as I'm taking the bag out, I tell him my side things in an effort to take some of the edge off and give him an idea of why I have police gear and an airsoft gun in my car before setting my duffel bag down on the side of the highway between my car and his cruiser; and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "I used to own a small business making tactical gear for law enforcement. I got into it because I knew a guy who did the same thing and he owned a company called "Rogue DSI". His name was Marc Nation, he ran it with a friend of his named L.T. They were pretty popular with police agencies accross Canada, but I'm not sure if you've heard of them or not. My business tanked though but becaues I play airsoft, I just make up my own gear when I need it and I'm hoping to get some game time in while I'm visiting my folks in Wasaga"

Officer: "Oh yeah? Airsoft shoots those BB's right?"

Me: "Yeah".

*officer starts taking my vests out*

Officer: "Hey look at that, you've got a radio and water bladder and everything on there. Not bad"

Me: "Yeah. My airsoft gun is in there too"

Officer: "Sure"

*he sees my MC51 and then takes it out of the bag*

Officer: "Hey that looks like something we use"

Me: "Yeah, it's more of a project gun than anything. Originally I wanted to get an M4 to work on, but everyone and their damn dog owns an M4 in this sport."

Officer: "Not bad, even has a folding stock on it. You know, if I wasn't this up close to look at it, I wouldn't even be able to tell. You'd think they'd have some kind of yellow or orange marking somewhere on them"

Me: "Yeah that's the thing, it's a bit of a grey area because they look like replica's, they're still also BB guns. It's still a pretty popular sport in Canada, but we do our best to keep it as low key and underground as we can. All I know for sure is that Customs doesn't like airsoft"

Officer: "We just recently talked to two kids a bit north of here who were running around BB handguns that their parents bought them".

Me: "Yeah that's the thing too. We try to keep things as low key and underground that we can. It really pisses a lot of us off whenever anything like that happens because of the bad press it gets".

Officer (looking the gun over still): "So where's the air?"

Me: "It actually uses an electric motor that has a piston in it. So you can either fire single shots or hold the trigger down and fire it on full auto"

Officer: "Oh yeah? What's the speed like on these things?"

Me: "I'm not 100% sure on all the numbers, but I do know that most stock guns fire around 270 feet per second and then you get guys who might want to take on a sniping role and they get up to about 450 feet per second".

And that was pretty much the gist of that conversation After our little "bonding" experience, he said he wasn't going to fine me for speeding or not having ownership and that he'd let me off with a warning.

I thanked the officer and packed up all my gear and told him that I really do appreciate it and between Sudbury and Wasaga, I didn't let the speedometer go over 90 km's, no matter how many people I pissed off behind me.

But although I was a bit scared through the whole thing, looking back at it, it was a pretty awesome experience and thought I would share

[HGI]

what a wonderful story.

[kalnaren]

Moral of the story: Don't fucking speed and give the cops an excuse to pull you over.

[Conscript]

Bullshit Mike, we all knew you were smoking pot.

Good to hear he let you off with a warning, looks like there are some friendly OPP officers.

[johjoh]

at least he dint take you as a criminal with a weapon if you wouldint of explained and opened the bad himself haha

[Kuro_Neko]

Originally Posted by kalnaren

Moral of the story: Don't fucking speed and give the cops an excuse to pull you over.

Especially when you have a trunk full of tactical gear and assault weapons.

[diamond_SEA]

I know alot of cops, and i know if your not an ass, cops are just like you and me and enjoy a good conversation.

Good story. enjoyed it alot

[Skruface]

[Cuddles]

good things happen when you tell the truth.

[Shirley]

Nice. Should've asked him to join the sport and hobby too.

[Styrak]

Good story man.

[L473ncy]

Originally Posted by diamond_SEA

I know alot of cops, and i know if your not an ass, cops are just like you and me and enjoy a good conversation.

Good story. enjoyed it alot

ehh..... I'm not so sure you can say that 100% of the time. My experience with police officers were all 100% positive but I know one guy who had his tail light out and the cop was all over his ass about his "N" being displayed and such. I mean he was a nice guy about it but the cop probably was just having a bad day.

Also yeah.... you should probably keep your bag in the back of the trunk where people can't see it.

[Armyissue]

Dude LT and Rogue may not be the best name to drop when trying to get outta crap with the Police lolz!!!

[Shooting Chef]

Great story Bro...nice to hear it turn out that way. Maybe next time you're gonna do some bonding, you can ask to see his guns.

[MillerBRo]

sounds like you did it all good

As for speeding, well I try not to break the law when I break the law (transporting prohibited replicas has a bevy of fines if nothing else lol)