My Costly Adventure to Wisconsin


If you have been following my little goings on, you would know I took the day off and went to the Milwaukee County Zoo to see the orangutans and the bonobos.

It was one of those beautiful days, I put my little piccolo into doggy day camp (below) and headed straight north destination: Milwaukee.

                                                                             
The drive to Milwaukee is 110 miles straight north 2 hours and 10 minutes, (via mapquest.com) and it is literally a straight shot north.  About ten minutes or so after crossing the boarder, I see through my rear view mirror a police car right up to my rear, light going on.  I go to the far left lane and put the car in park. 

The police officer, approaches the car via the passenger side, and with an attitude.  I say this because when I rolled down my passenger side window he screamed at me to shut my window.  "Shut your window!" he yelled at me.  I looked at him like, "wha?" and actually that's what I said...."What?"  "Shut your window!" he responded, this time louder, and he pointed his finger at the window behind me.  While looking at him, I llifted my left hand and knocked on the closed window and I said, "Hello?" (laughing)  "Oh, uh, I'm sorry, I didn't know...it looks like it is open," he said while looking behind me closer.

"Do you know how fast you were speeding?" he said.  I told him I think I was going around 75, which is 10 over.  I was going 77 mph, which isn't that fast.  He took my information and when he returned he went through the song and dance about appearing in court, blah, blah.

I asked him, "how much is this going to cost me?"

"$250.00," he said

"Two-hundred and fifty dollars?!?"

"That's right!"

The only thing that came out of my mouth was, "KA-CHING!"

"What did you say?"

"I said, I can't believe it is so much money," I responded.

I went on my merry way in a very different mood than when he pulled me over.  I couldn't believe it was so much money.  Not only that, but people who live in Wisconsin would not only get the ticket but have points taken off on their insurance.  I was driving and was angry that they can get away with this.

A week later I was sitting in bed on my laptop when out of the blue the news had about Wisconsin pulling more people over from Illinois than their own state.  I was ecstatic and I wanted to be one more voice to complain.  I think they are using us as a cash cow because (a) someone from another state would not complain, (b) they are not taking their own residences money, (c) soomeone from another state would just pay the fine and not show up to court.  Then today and yesterday I got letters from law firms from Wisconsin selling their services.  The wheels of money just keep turning.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/08/study-illinoisans-gets-more-tickets-in-wisconsin.html