When I was young, my family would spend 2-3 weeks camping on the beach at Camp Pendleton marine base in SoCal. In college, I had work commitments that made spending 3 summer weeks there impossible, so I would drive down on what days off I had and spend as much time as I could.
Headed down I-5 about a mile from the Basilone exit and a lug nut comes off the car in front of me. It bounces up and hits the lower left corner of the windshield and a 4″ crack is produced from the impact. Crap! BTW: I knew it was a lug nut because it landed in the bed of my pickup thus saving other road users from this hazard.
I pull up to the base entrance and have my ID, registration, insurance and a copy of the camping reservation to show the guy on duty. He looks over everything and says: “Everything looks in order. When the gate arm goes up, pull over to the guard post and we will get you a vehicle pass for the campground.”
When he hands everything back, “you know you have a crack on your windshield there?”
“Yes, it just happened on the freeway.”
“Okay, come on through.”
I park and walk into the guard house to get the pass and he says, “now that you’re on base, I am going to have to cite you for the broken windshield.”
He proceeded to flip through the big binder of offenses he had to find the right one. As he flipped through, I did notice one page had a marker on it. Public Drunkenness was a $10 fine. That one must get used a lot. #Marines
Broken windshield was a $40 ticket.
I actually came back another weekend in the same vehicle (windshield still cracked) and the guard said nothing.
I am guessing that the guard that cited me had just been chewed out for something stupid by some officer that had rolled through before me. Shit rolls downhill.
