Have you ever been administered a field sobriety test by police and then let go and allowed to drive home?

Why were you lucky? Were you drunk?

Curious, did you admit to them that you had been drinking?

You Know Me wrote:

Curious, did you admit to them that you had been drinking?

Yes. Told them I'd had 2 drinks and they asked me to step out of the car

Yes and the cop had me follow his finger back and forth. He asked if I knew what he was doing and I told him that he was checking my peripheral vision because that's the first to go when you're drunk. He let me go when he probably shouldn't have. I also told he I was a nurse which helped because cops generally like nurses. In any case, I was too drunk to drive and never ever did that again.

Here's mine. I'd been at sea for a month. 6 hour drive home, night. Texas. I was drinking a six pack on the way. Then, gumballs in the rearview. Luckily the one between my legs was just empty, so I didn't have to spill anything as I shoved the cans under the seat. Pulled over. First question out of the cop: "Have you been drinking?" My life pretty much flashed before my eyes at this point. I'm not that kind of scum and had never been arrested for anything in my life. I was 100% sure I was going down, and that THIS is the moment back onto which I will spend the rest of my life looking, the exact moment when everything went wrong.

"No sir." I said.

"Why are your eyes so glassy right now?" said he.

I shrugged. "I don't know, sir. Just tired." He shone the light then down at my feet on the floorboards.

"What are all those beers doing on the floor?" I looked down. When I had stopped, all the beers had rolled out from under the seat. I picked one up, lucky it was not the empty.

"Oh those have been down there for a long time, I just forgot about them. See, they're not open." I showed him.

"Where are you coming from right now?"

"I just came off a boat, I work offshore, I've been out for a month and I'm driving home."

Basically nothing happened. They'd pulled me over for a burnt plate light. I was driving a 1960 Ford at the time, with the gas fill in the center of the rear end, and every time I filled up a little gas would trickle out and burn out the bulb. So I'd stopped replacing it. I walked back and explained this to the man. The guy wrote me a warning. I drove home very, very, very carefully.

I either hit a nice cop, or I'm the luckiest man on earth for the officer's not noticing the can was ice-cold and sweating perspiration, thus obviously had not been "down there for a long time."

So I suppose I must answer no, I have never been issued a field sobriety test. Nor been issued one and then allowed to leave.

Tex. Penal Code Ann. §49.031

(b) A person commits an offense if the person knowingly possesses an open container in a passenger area of a motor vehicle that is located on a public highway

http://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerce/open-container-and-consumption-statutes.aspx#TX

got Lucky yo wrote:

You Know Me wrote:

Curious, did you admit to them that you had been drinking?

Yes. Told them I'd had 2 drinks and they asked me to step out of the car

Still don't understand why you were lucky. Were you drunk?

I was stunned and swerving around. The bong was under some papers or something on the passenger seat. I didn't even notice the cop walk up to my window at a red light until he knocked. He thought I was drinking because I was swerving. I told him I wasnt. He asked again and I said no,and offered to take a breathalyzer. He told me to breath and he smelt it than let me go.

I should add, I don't know how he didn't smell the weed. I had smoked it in the vehicle no more than 30 minutes ago with the windows all up. I was eating Harveys while driving. When he asked why I was swerving (I crossed 4 lanes rather abruptly) I said, I changed my mind about where I wanted to go. I thought this was really clever explanation considering I was stoned off my rocker.

pig ball wrote:

First question out of the cop: "Have you been drinking?" ...I'm not that kind of scum and had never been arrested for anything in my life. .

I don't understand. What "kind of scum" are you referring to that you are "not"? one that breaks the law? one that drinks and drives? Those are not necessarily my judgements, but I am trying to figure out what you mean with that comment. Because if that is what you meant, then you actually are "that kind of scum."

To answer the OP: yes, got the field sobriety test once. Was definitely over the legal limit if given a breathalyzer, but passed the field test easily. The cop apologized to me for pulling me over (?!).

(i was with someone one time who got "the test." He started the alphabet, was doing well, but then when he hit Z, for some strange reason {oh wait, that's right, he was drunk and stoned} he started the alphabet over again and upon reaching F for the second time just sort of trailed off, not finishing the rest, and acting like nothing odd just happened. Then was asked to count from 1-10. It went like this: "1,2,3, 7, 8, 9.......". Busted. Car towed, Puked in back of cop car. Lost license, lost job because he had no way of getting there anymore.

It was funny at the moment, but.......not funny at all in the end.

Drinking and driving: it's no joke)

Not cool at all.

end of thread.

A cop is cruising by a bar right before closing time when

he sees a guy fall out of the front door. He pulls over

across the street and just watches this guy try to stand up

and struggle to make it to the parking lot. The cop is

laughing to himself and can't wait for the guy to get behind

the wheel so he can bust him. The guy gets up but

immediately falls over again. People are leaving the bar

and stepping over the drunk on the sidewalk. The guy

makes his way to the parking lot and drops his keys. He

bends over to pick them up and kicks them instead. He

bangs his head on the side of a car when he tries to pick

them up again. The cop is sitting in his car laughing out

loud now. He lets the rest of the bar patrons drive right on

by. The drunk finds his keys and stabs them at a car door

for two minutes before he realizes that it's the wrong car.

The bar is closed and everyone is gone by the time this

guy gets in his car and finally pulls out of the parking lot.

The cop lets him get down the block before he pulls the

guy over.

The cop asks the guy to get out of his car and walk a strait

line while his dashboard camera films it. The guy does the

test without a problem. He's asked to put his head back

and touch his nose. He does it without trouble. After that

he recites the alphabet backwards. The cop is annoyed

and makes him blow into the breath analyzer. It reads all

zeros. "I don't understand! How can this be? You were just

falling down intoxicated a minute ago. How can you be

perfectly sober now?" "Easy," the guy explains.

"I'm the designated drunk!"

After a wedding reception last summer a cop saw me walk out of a bar at 1 AM and get in my car. He followed me for two miles then pulled me over. I had had about 2 beers significantly earlier in the evening (at least 5-6 hours before I was stopped). Stupidly I told the cop that I had been at a wedding and had drank. He went back to his car for about 5 minutes and then came back and told me to step outside of my vehicle. By this point 3 other cops had shown up and I was pretty sure I was going to have a problem. I was given the field sobriety tests (follow the pen, touch my nose, stand on one leg, walk in a straight line), and then the cop pulled out the breathalyzer. 0.000. He didn't believe it so he made me blow again. Another 0.000. One of the other cops then started grilling me about whether I had been using any illicit drugs because I "seemed really out of it." Finally the original cop who pulled me over said, "Well, I guess I don't have any choice but to let you go."

No Way wrote:

got Lucky yo wrote:

Yes. Told them I'd had 2 drinks and they asked me to step out of the car

Still don't understand why you were lucky. Were you drunk?

He's lucky because you are at the whim of what type of cop you get and what kind of mood he is in.

You don't have to be drunk to be charged or brought in or ordered not to drive.

I've had a few drinks and passed a sobriety test before, by the way.

I was pulled over close to midnight and told the officer that I had drank half of a beer. It was the truth but I knew that was not going to sit well with him. No 'stupid human tricks' on the side of the road at all. He just had me blow into a field breathalyzer. I blew 0.0.

He asked me to explain the half a beer and I did. He said OK and let me go.

For the record, I was drinking a beer when a friend from out of town showed up to my house. I knew we were in for a night of drinking beers at the house and I still had to run an errand. I put my beer down and we ran the errand so I could drink worry free for the rest of the evening.

Good choices lead to good results

Man, I get that this thread is about being let go by the cops so a lot of you posting here didn't get popped. But I can't believe how many of you actually are admitting to a cop that you've been drinking. Some kindergarten shit right here: never tell the cops when you've committed a crime. There is no "he'll go easier on me if I just level with him" when dealing with pigs. I don't care if you're pulled over with an almost-empty bottle of wild turkey between your legs and vomit all over the windshield. The only answer to "have you had anything to drink tonight" should ALWAYS be "no." Tack on a "sir" if you're feeling polite.

I can't quote it because I can't find it right now, but there's an H Thompson line that goes something like, a cop on an open stretch of road at nighttime very much makes his own law. Like the guy above said, a pig can bust you now at any time, for anything he feels like. Especially on a stretch of open highway, and especially at night. If he wants to take you in, he'll take you in. End of story. Might as well at least make the swine work for it.

When I was young and stupid I was pulled over multiple times while hammered. One time I was driving the wrong way down a one way street. They pulled me over and asked me if I had been drinking and I said no (this was at 4 am in the bar district, I am sure I reeked of booze). No breathalizer, they just told me to go home but made me drive backwards for a couple hundred yards down the one way street. Seems like an awful idea on their part but I am sure they got a good laugh out of it.

I got pulled over another time a couple blocks from my house again going the wrong way down a one way street. I told them I lived two blocks away and they just told me to go home.

In both instances I am sure I would have blown over a .2 if they checked. Thankfully I realized how stupid that was a do not do that anymore.

Another time while in canada I got pulled over after getting into a fight with some strippers and rednecks at a strip club. This time I blew a .09 and they towed my car but didn't do anything else. We just had to walk several miles back to the peace bridge where we found some ladies who were coming back from bingo and were willing to give us a ride so we didn't have to explain to customs why we were trying to walk across the border.

Very lucky yo wrote:

Happened to me. Got very lucky

Yes. I was in the back seat of a friend's car when we were stopped at a checkpoint. My friend was determined to be drunk. Cop asks, "Anyone in the car not drinking?" I said "yes, me". Cop gave me a sobriety test and then allowed me to drive my friend's car to his home. Had to tell friend's mother to go pick up her son in jail.

Sad part is that I had offered to drive before we ever started out. Wish I had insisted.