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A friend from Florida passed this message. It is important information.
Thought I would pass this along as it is valuable information for all of us
who sometimes travel alone and are not aware of #77 on your cell phone.
Pass along to your daughters, daughters-in-law, friends, and others.
This is an actual true story and not one of those Internet stories that are
passed on and on. This actually happened to one of my dearest new friend's
daughter. Her daughter, Lauren, is 19 yrs. Old and a sophomore in college.
This happened to her over the Christmas/New Year's holiday break.
It was the Saturday before New Year's and it was about 1 PM in the
afternoon. Lauren was driving from here (Winchester, Va.) to visit a friend
in Warrenton. For those of you who are familiar with the area, she was
taking Rt. 50 east towards Middleburg and then was going to cut over to
I-66 via Rt.17. Those of you who aren't familiar with this area, Rt. 50
east is a main road (55 mph and two lanes each side with a big median
separating East/West lanes), but is somewhat secluded, known for it's big
horse farms and beautiful country estates.
Lauren was actually following behind a state police car shortly after she
left Winchester and was going just over 65 mph since she was following
behind him. An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights
on.
My friend and her husband have 4 children (high school and college age) and
have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked car on the side of
the road, but rather wait until they get to a gas station, etc. So Lauren
actually listened to her parents advice, and promptly called #77 on her cell
phone to tell the dispatcher that she would not pull over right away. She
proceeded to tell the dispatcher that there were 2 police cars, one unmarked
behind her and one marked infront of her.
The dispatcher checked to confirm that there were 2 police cars where she
was. There wasn't and she was connected to the policeman in front of her.
He told her to keep driving, remain calm and that he had back-up already on
the way.
Ten minutes later, 4 police cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind
her. One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car
behind. They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground ...
the man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes. Thank God
Lauren listened to her parents! She was shaken up, but fine.
I never knew that bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car,
you should NEVER pull over for an unmarked car in a secluded area. In
fact, even a marked car after dark should follow you to a populated area.
Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a "safe"
place.
You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them (i.e. put
on your hazard lights) or call #77 like Lauren did.
I am so thankful that my friend was sitting at our book club meeting telling
us this scary story, rather than us at her house consoling her had something
tragic occurred! Be safe and pass this on to your friends.
Awareness is everything!
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Urban Legend Zeitgeist: Fake Police and #77: Example