These Are The Worst Traffic Tickets You’ve Ever Gotten

From possession of an illegal radar detector to failure to stop at an intersection on a bicycle, the people who visit Jalopnik don’t get pulled over for run-of-the-mill reasons. We asked our readers earlier this week for the worst traffic tickets they’ve ever received. While one person jokingly thought we were ready to rat him out to his insurance provider, the comments section was still packed with tales of how our well-behaved readers ended up on the wrong side of the law.

Some commenters fully admitted they were in the wrong, while others argued that the police officers in their misadventures were just fishing for a citation. A few people were holding grudges over tickets that were written decades ago. Thankfully, no one admitted to committing a crime that they weren’t caught for or didn’t provide enough information to incriminate themselves. Without further ado, here are the worst tickets you’ve ever gotten behind the wheel:

Driving through a small town in Nebraska where the speed limit changed seven times within a one-mile stretch (I went back and counted), most of the time without warning and the signs partially blocked. It was definitely intentional on their part.

Submitted by: cwheels

Cop cut me off pulling out of a business driveway onto the main street. Didn’t have to “slam” on the brakes, but definitely had to slow aggressively to avoid hitting him. Then he pulled over to the side of the road about 100 feet later, let me pass, then entered the road again behind me and pulled me over. Wrote me a ticket for failure to maintain a safe distance.

Got it thrown out. But it still makes me mad twenty years later.

Submitted by: CanadianTireKicker

I was heading home from work a little after midnight in Scranton. I was making a left turn and the traffic light turns yellow mid-intersection and a cop is to my right. He gave me a reckless driving ticket. I fought it and it got reduced to a $36 parking violation. The best ticket I didn’t get is when my brother and I were on Interstate 380 coming home from work and we just wanted to get home. I was doing 96 mph when I look in the rear view and see a PA Trooper inches behind me in his Crown Vic. He pulls alongside me, looks at us for a few seconds and just speeds off. My brother said it’s quitting time and he didn’t want to fill the paperwork out on that one. I was never so relieved and confused and the same time. True story, swear to God.

Submitted by: Bruno

I was driving to work when I had a relatively low-speed collision with a truck. My head hit the front of the car and I was bleeding a bit from my forehead. My front end was crunched, but drivable, with fluids spewing. I was a few blocks from work, and drove at low speed on empty residential side streets, assuming that once I stopped, I might not be able to start the car again.

I rolled through a stop sign on a deserted residential street one block from work. A cop pulled me over. I explained what happened (did I mention I was bleeding from my forehead?) and he still wrote me a ticket.

Submitted by: MidwestCarGuy

My freshman year of college, riding my bike to class. Approached a 4-way stop. The car going my direction had stopped moments before I arrived, so I just proceeded with that car as a shield through the intersection. A cop was nearby and turned on his lights and siren. I couldn’t fathom it being for me, so I ignored it. As I’m pulling up to class, the cop turns on his loudspeaker, “You on the bike, pull over.” Got a moving violation ticket that jacked up my insurance for years.

Submitted by: Kade Baird

In true stereotypical “don’t speed in Virginia” fashion, in 2014, I got a reckless driving charge for doing 45 in a 20. I was pulled over at the bottom of a hill just before crossing an intersection at about 8 pm. On the other side of the intersection, I knew the speed limit was 45, but I didn’t drive much on the side I was on. I could even see the 45 mph sign from where he pulled me over. He didn’t give me a chance to tell my story either (I was getting off work late from a shift at the hospital taking care of sick children and was going to pick up my cat from the vet who was dying of cancer before they closed in a few minutes, seriously). He just gave me the ticket and told me to appear in court. My response was “WTF,” which he used as an example that I was being rude during the stop.

I drove that length of road again to look for a sign, and there wasn’t a sign posting the limit from where I turned on the road to where I was pulled over. The judge didn’t want to hear that, though. I hired an attorney who told me it was pointless to hire him because he knew what the judge was going to say in that jurisdiction. He was completely right, too. Lost my license for a week and paid the fine. I asked about exceptions for driving to work. He said that was a thing, but that it would be three months if I chose that. I ended up bumming rides for a week. The worst part is that I have a misdemeanor on my record permanently and I have to report it any time I change jobs.

Submitted by: JJ

For not wearing a seat belt while driving a tractor-trailer when I was wearing a seat belt. The crooked Cop was working on I-30 in Greenville, TX. The big truck I was following was also cited for the same offense. From that day forward, I have always boycotted all things from Texas.

Submitted by: George Z

I was going about 80 in a 75 zone, which never gets attention from the state patrol here. But an olive green Hyundai zoomed by me and a few minutes later, I was getting pulled over. I happened to be driving a bright red Veloster N. I couldn’t figure out why I was pulled over and he was trying to pin me down on my speed. Finally, he accused me of [going] 98 mph and I simply pointed out the car that zoomed by me, which was the only one going faster than everyone else. He was startled because he very clearly realized I was right and he’d pulled over the wrong vehicle. I didn’t get a ticket for speeding, but I got a “wasting environmental resources” ticket instead. What an ass.

Submitted by: Robot impurity

In Alberta, got caught for 95 in a 50 zone – mandatory court appearance, this was back in ’96 or so, I show up in court and they change the charge to ‘speeding beyond a reasonable limit’ or some such words. So I leave with a $550.00 fine and no license for three months, went to meet buddy at the bar but nope they want some ID, no beer for me.

Submitted by: E M Griffiths

It seems that me and radar detectors seem to attract tickets. For example:

When I was still in college (Go Musketeers!!!), I did the drive from Cincinnati to the Philadelphia suburbs on a regular basis via the PA Turnpike. And it was still 55 at that time. I also gave friends a ride with me if their trip home could go through Philadelphia. One friend recommended use of his radar detector to assist in getting through PA quicker.

We’re on the Turnpike, exiting one of the tunnels, when I realize that an unmarked car is behind me and he got me leaving the tunnel doing 70 in a 55. He hands me the expensive ticket and starts walking back to his car. He then walks back to my car, taps on the window, points at the radar detector, and with a smirk says, “You know son, you live by the sword, you die by the sword!”

A few years later, I’m living in NoVA. Radar detectors are illegal there, but I still had my PA plates and license so maybe I could play dumb. I pull into a mostly empty bank lot and head in. When I exit, there’s an officer standing next to my car. He yells over, “Is this your car? Do you know that’s illegal in VA?”I had my new Escort on the windshield. I forget how much the fine was, but it was very expensive. After that, I kept it hidden until I left the state on road trips.

In the end, 2 years later, my car was broken into and the Escort was stolen…

Submitted by: Xavier96

Coming into a small town in west Texas, the speed limit goes from 75 mph to 55 mph. I’m slowing down coming up to the 55 mph sign, pass it, but the sheriff lights me up and I pull into the gas station – takes my license, checks my insurance, then goes to his car and comes back with a ticket for me going 57 in a 55. I rarely argue, but tried to affirm that I was slowing down and was well under 55 not long after I would have passed the 55 [sign] because it then went to 35 maybe a quarter to a half mile later. He agreed that I was slowing down, but said it didn’t matter because I was speeding and that the law’s the law.

Submitted by: Ryan Brenn

I’ve only gotten two tickets in my life (I’m 62), both on the same day, in Grayling, Michigan. The first ticket was for “going through a yellow light.” The second ticket was for going 4 mph over the limit on M-72. I had a cousin who worked for the local court there and she told me that much of the city’s income was based on ticketing “out of towners.”

This was 25 years ago, and I’ve never driven through Grayling since.

Submitted by: Kevin Forth