I flew to LA for a conference the day before Thanksgiving.
In LA, my wife and I met up with group of 16 Koreans who then went with us on a mission trip from LA to Houston.
We drove two 15-passenger vans and had overnights in Phoenix, Tucson, El Paso, Fredericksburg, and College Station, before ending up in H-Town.
I drove one of the vans the entire way from LA to Houston.
A few nights ago we were driving (7PM, dark) about 70 mile west of Fredericksburg (TX).
The speed limit was 80, and I was going about 75mph.
A police car passed me, but then the copper slowed his speed until he was going about 60, at which point I was getting up close enough behind him that I really need to pass him.
I said to my traveling partner in the passenger's seat, "Hey this is a police car, and it is going about 20 miles under the speed limit. Should I pass him?"
My partner didn't give me much of a response.
I didn't like the idea of passing a police car, so I just stayed behind him, and my speed had gradually dropped to about 60.
Should I pass him or not pass him?
Then a car came up behind me, going 75 or 80, and the car passed me, and the car also passed the police car.
After this, I decided, "Okay, I might as well also pass the police car."
So, I passed the police car going 75 to 80.
Right after I passed the police car, the police car increased its speed until it was trailing me pretty closely, but not passing me.
This went on for about a mile, and I did not like having a police car trailing me so closely like this, and I felt like this was not ordinary.
And sure enough, the police lights started flashing, and the copper pulled me, and my nine Korean passengers over.
My wife was one of the passengers, and she is of Korean descent, but is a US citizen.
The officer comes to my window and says, "Sir, You were going about 20 mph under the speed limit, so I had to pull you over. I need to see your license and your proof of insurance."
I gave him my license and told him I needed to get the van rental agreement (insurance info) from my backpack in the back of the van.
And I was thinking, "Hey dude, YOU were the one who was going 20 mph under the limit."
So, he let me go to the back of the van and get the rental agreement, which I gave to him.
He left me standing by the side of the road (pretty chilly outside that night) while he went to his car to check my license and insurance info.
The Koreans in the van were like...
Then a few minutes later, copper comes out of his car and starts to question me.
"Who are the people in the van? Where are you going?"
I told him we were on a mission trip. We began in LA, and we are going to Houston, where we will return the van and the Koreans will then fly back to Korea. I told him we were in El Paso last night, and we are palnning to sleep in Fredericksburg tonight.
Copper then told me to stay where I am, because he is going to go over to the van and talk to the people in the van. He asked me if any of them speak English. I told him, "Yes, a number of them do."
He goes to the van and my wife starts to respond to him.
He calls her out of the van and then they are talking for a couple of minutes. My wife verified the story that I had told him a few minutes earlier.
Then I hear him say, "Okay, I need to see the passports for all of you."
I was thinking... "What? Why do they need to prove that they belong here? Nobody here has done anything wrong. We are just simply traveling on the freeway."
So, they all fish their passports out of their suitcases/backpacks and give them to Mr. Officer.
He walks past me and says, "I need to go to my car and check these out. If everything checks out okay, I will just give you a warning and you'll be on your way."
I said, "Am I okay to get back in the van?"
He says, "Yes."
We all wait in the van and he comes back to my window about 5 minutes later and says, "Everything checked out okay. Here is your license and rental agreement, Sir. And here are the eight passports (my wife had given him her drivers license, since she is a citizen and wasn't carrying a passport.) You are free to go."
The officer told my wife that he was suspicious of us because had a large passenger van that was rented in LA, and we were driving in a region where there are a lot of illegals, and a lot of human trafficking is going on.
The officer saw that one Caucasian was driving a large van full of people of another nationality, and he thought there was a good chance that this was a human trafficking situation.
He did not admit to my wife that he caused me to drive 20 mph under the speed limit, and then use that as a reason for pulling me over, but that is what he did.
We were guilty until we could prove our innocence.
