This is a true story that happened to me a few years back.
Some will find this entertaining, I hope some might learn something they didn't know before.
I learned quite a bit from this experience.
I used to travel 48 states using my RV to work out of.
We relocated semi tractors. Our company required three people. We would all travel in the RV to the job site. Once there, we would unload all the tools necessary and take up to eight semi tractors and hook them together making two loads up to four each.
My wife would drive one load, I'd drive the other, and a third hired hand would follow us in the RV.
We were all in the RV on our way to the next job passing through Illinois inthe middle of the night. It was winter, cold, and snowing lightly.
My wife and I were asleep in the back and my friend John was driving.
I was awakened hearing John announce we were getting pulled over. I quickly hopped out of bed threw on some clothes and at the same time asked him why we were getting pulled over.
John responded that he had no idea, he wasn't speeding.
He pulled the RV to the side of the road. By this time my wife was awake and present as well.
We sat still until the officer came to the vehicle. He did not approach the drivers door but instead knocked on the side door leading to the living area.
I opened the door. The officer said it's cold may I come in?
At the time I saw no reason not to let him in, I had nothing to hide, so I let him in.
I inquired as to why were pulled over, and was told a lane change made was not indicated with a turn signal.( Turned out the bulb was bad)
The next thing he did was look at a rack in the kitchen mounted on the wall holding kitchen knives and asked if we had any other weapons.
Still a little groggy from waking up I asked weapons? He pointed to the rack and said WEAPONS.
I told him there was no weapons that he needed to worry about.
He then saw that John had a buck knife in the visor above the drivers seat.
The officer asked what about that? Pointing to the buck knife.
I told the officer I had no idea why he had that there.
The officer looked around another minute, and said he would be right back and left.
Looking out the rear window I could see at least two other units had arrived.
I thought Crap! What's this all about?
Another officer enters the RV. He too looks around and asks again, are you sure you have no other weapons, guns etc?
Being as we stayed on the road three or more months at a time, I decided leaving my firearms at home was not a good idea in case of burglary.
I told the officer, yes, I do have a six shot .22 pistol, but it's locked in the safe. he asked to see it. I thought of asking him, What? You never seen a .22 before? But keeping my better judgment I resisted, and retreated to the bedroom opened the safe and brought out the revolver, and unholstered it.
I opened the cylinder and ejected the bullets and handed it to him still open.
He examined the revolver, closed it and walked out of the RV.
A couple of minutes later the first officer returned, entered and giving me a nasty looked said, I thought you told me there weren't any weapons on board?
I told him I remember telling him there weren't any that he needed to worry about.
By this time there were now six squad cars behind us with all the lights flashing.
I could hear truckers talking on the CB radio.
One guy goes, well I bet they caught some drug runners, another chimes back with it's probably full of illegal aliens.
I told John to shut the dam thing off.
The officer asks, do you have any more guns in here. I told him no.
He then says everybody out.
We were ushered out not even being allowed to grab a coat.
As we stood on the side of the road four officers and a dog approached, and they all piled into the RV. We could see them rustling about inside.
Then they came out, and walked the dog around the RV a couple of times and went back in.
They came out again, and again went around the RV looking underneath and in the side boxes full of tools.
We were beginning to freeze standing outside in the cold. One of the officers had the decency to allow my wife to sit in his cruiser to stay warm, but John and I were left outside.
They went back into the RV for the third time, and came out carrying my SKS.
The officer carrying it came up to me, held it out, and asked, What's this?
I told him it wasn't much more than maybe a club. I pointed out there was no magazine and the bolt was completely removed, so it wasn't much as far as guns go.
He walked away with it, and I was asked again by the first officer who was pretty angry by now if I had any more guns inside. I told him no.
Nonetheless they all piled back in for another look. They went through all the drawers and cabinets as well as the closets.
We had been on the side of the road now for practically an hour and a half, or maybe more before they let us back in.
The first officer then wrote us a fix it ticket for the turn signal.
Another officer returned with the firearms, laid them on the sofa and announced they are registered and clean.
By this time I had about had it and told the cop that I could have told him that!
He told me he could tell I wanted to be a good guy and obey the law.
He then told me I needed to get a case for the rifle in order to carry it properly. I told him I didn't have one. he then proceeded to tell me to grab a pair of jeans and stuff it down a pant leg.
I inquired, wouldn't that be more like trying to hide it as compared to being stored underneath the bed as he had found it?
He told me no, so I did as he suggested.
He then handed me the ticket and told me to drive safely, and left.
We sat for a few minutes, stunned at all that had taken place. After all the police cars left, I looked around.
Sure they had tossed the place around a bit. But what really angered me was that they had broken every single latch on every cabinet and closet.
It was obvious they didn't know how to operate them.
Twenty latches were destroyed at $12 Bucks each to replace.
I should have probably filed a complaint but didn't.
THINGS LEARNED AFTER THE FACT:
1. I should have not let the first officer in. Doing so gave all the other officers permission to enter as well.
The RV was my home. Anything in the driver area forward of the seats is fair game for the most part. Anything behind the front seats is your home and they have no right to enter without a search warrant, or I suppose very good probable cause.
2. I should have directed the officer to the drivers door.
3. People younger than sixty five driving RV's are highly suspicious.
I'm sure there are more things I learned but can't remember, although I will remember to stay out of that state at any cost.
So again in summary, Never let a LEO in your RV without a warrant. I wasn't doing anything illegal, but was treated like some sort of criminal, and forced to freeze my butt off on the side of the road all because I didn't wish for the officer to stand out in the cold.
Some will find this entertaining, I hope some might learn something they didn't know before.
I learned quite a bit from this experience.
I used to travel 48 states using my RV to work out of.
We relocated semi tractors. Our company required three people. We would all travel in the RV to the job site. Once there, we would unload all the tools necessary and take up to eight semi tractors and hook them together making two loads up to four each.
My wife would drive one load, I'd drive the other, and a third hired hand would follow us in the RV.
We were all in the RV on our way to the next job passing through Illinois inthe middle of the night. It was winter, cold, and snowing lightly.
My wife and I were asleep in the back and my friend John was driving.
I was awakened hearing John announce we were getting pulled over. I quickly hopped out of bed threw on some clothes and at the same time asked him why we were getting pulled over.
John responded that he had no idea, he wasn't speeding.
He pulled the RV to the side of the road. By this time my wife was awake and present as well.
We sat still until the officer came to the vehicle. He did not approach the drivers door but instead knocked on the side door leading to the living area.
I opened the door. The officer said it's cold may I come in?
At the time I saw no reason not to let him in, I had nothing to hide, so I let him in.
I inquired as to why were pulled over, and was told a lane change made was not indicated with a turn signal.( Turned out the bulb was bad)
The next thing he did was look at a rack in the kitchen mounted on the wall holding kitchen knives and asked if we had any other weapons.
Still a little groggy from waking up I asked weapons? He pointed to the rack and said WEAPONS.
I told him there was no weapons that he needed to worry about.
He then saw that John had a buck knife in the visor above the drivers seat.
The officer asked what about that? Pointing to the buck knife.
I told the officer I had no idea why he had that there.
The officer looked around another minute, and said he would be right back and left.
Looking out the rear window I could see at least two other units had arrived.
I thought Crap! What's this all about?
Another officer enters the RV. He too looks around and asks again, are you sure you have no other weapons, guns etc?
Being as we stayed on the road three or more months at a time, I decided leaving my firearms at home was not a good idea in case of burglary.
I told the officer, yes, I do have a six shot .22 pistol, but it's locked in the safe. he asked to see it. I thought of asking him, What? You never seen a .22 before? But keeping my better judgment I resisted, and retreated to the bedroom opened the safe and brought out the revolver, and unholstered it.
I opened the cylinder and ejected the bullets and handed it to him still open.
He examined the revolver, closed it and walked out of the RV.
A couple of minutes later the first officer returned, entered and giving me a nasty looked said, I thought you told me there weren't any weapons on board?
I told him I remember telling him there weren't any that he needed to worry about.
By this time there were now six squad cars behind us with all the lights flashing.
I could hear truckers talking on the CB radio.
One guy goes, well I bet they caught some drug runners, another chimes back with it's probably full of illegal aliens.
I told John to shut the dam thing off.
The officer asks, do you have any more guns in here. I told him no.
He then says everybody out.
We were ushered out not even being allowed to grab a coat.
As we stood on the side of the road four officers and a dog approached, and they all piled into the RV. We could see them rustling about inside.
Then they came out, and walked the dog around the RV a couple of times and went back in.
They came out again, and again went around the RV looking underneath and in the side boxes full of tools.
We were beginning to freeze standing outside in the cold. One of the officers had the decency to allow my wife to sit in his cruiser to stay warm, but John and I were left outside.
They went back into the RV for the third time, and came out carrying my SKS.
The officer carrying it came up to me, held it out, and asked, What's this?
I told him it wasn't much more than maybe a club. I pointed out there was no magazine and the bolt was completely removed, so it wasn't much as far as guns go.
He walked away with it, and I was asked again by the first officer who was pretty angry by now if I had any more guns inside. I told him no.
Nonetheless they all piled back in for another look. They went through all the drawers and cabinets as well as the closets.
We had been on the side of the road now for practically an hour and a half, or maybe more before they let us back in.
The first officer then wrote us a fix it ticket for the turn signal.
Another officer returned with the firearms, laid them on the sofa and announced they are registered and clean.
By this time I had about had it and told the cop that I could have told him that!
He told me he could tell I wanted to be a good guy and obey the law.
He then told me I needed to get a case for the rifle in order to carry it properly. I told him I didn't have one. he then proceeded to tell me to grab a pair of jeans and stuff it down a pant leg.
I inquired, wouldn't that be more like trying to hide it as compared to being stored underneath the bed as he had found it?
He told me no, so I did as he suggested.
He then handed me the ticket and told me to drive safely, and left.
We sat for a few minutes, stunned at all that had taken place. After all the police cars left, I looked around.
Sure they had tossed the place around a bit. But what really angered me was that they had broken every single latch on every cabinet and closet.
It was obvious they didn't know how to operate them.
Twenty latches were destroyed at $12 Bucks each to replace.
I should have probably filed a complaint but didn't.
THINGS LEARNED AFTER THE FACT:
1. I should have not let the first officer in. Doing so gave all the other officers permission to enter as well.
The RV was my home. Anything in the driver area forward of the seats is fair game for the most part. Anything behind the front seats is your home and they have no right to enter without a search warrant, or I suppose very good probable cause.
2. I should have directed the officer to the drivers door.
3. People younger than sixty five driving RV's are highly suspicious.
I'm sure there are more things I learned but can't remember, although I will remember to stay out of that state at any cost.
So again in summary, Never let a LEO in your RV without a warrant. I wasn't doing anything illegal, but was treated like some sort of criminal, and forced to freeze my butt off on the side of the road all because I didn't wish for the officer to stand out in the cold.
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