Do prestige car drivers get treated badly from others on the road, and by the police?


Monster

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Well I had a shocking day today. I wasn’t involved in the earlier parts of the events, but I am still absolutely fuming, so I am going to release some steam here and share it with you guys. What I am about to say is absolutely 100% true, it really did happen

My mum was driving her E 350 with my younger brother riding along. Our car was stuck in traffic when the right side mirror was hit by a truck while it forced its way through traffic. The truck driver heard the noise, but continued to drive on, so my mum decided to chase after the truck, while on the horn for the entire time.

Eventually the truck driver and my mum both stopped at the side of the road, and my younger brother got out of the car to ask for an exchange of insurance details. The truck driver got out, denied everything and began to threaten my brother. My brother called the police immediately and the truck driver drove off. We got his number plate.

I received a call from my brother afterward and I drove over to them as quickly as possible. Thankfully, only the side mirror was damaged, it can be easily replaced. Now here begins the part when it just caused me great frustration, to say the least. We waited for 20 min for the police but nobody came. I know we are about 10 min drive from two nearby police stations so it couldn’t have taken this long, even if there is traffic. We called the police station again; they said we will have to drive the car to them. I thought this is alright, as least they are going to do something about it.

We were about 400 meters away from the police station when we witness a car accident right in front of us. The VW Golf directly in front of us was hit on the driver side when another car came out from the side street. It was a medium speed impact, drivers from both cars walked out fine.

Anyway we continue to drive to the police station, and we parked the car right outside the station so the police can take a look later on. As soon as we walked into the station, we told a police officer we just witness a car accident in front of us, unbelievably, the police officer said “Not Interested”

I was thinking is this guy serious? Initially the police officer refused to even write a police statement; he told us the other driver has no obligation to exchange insurance details. We complained to him about the behavior of the truck driver, he just said “Not interested’’ We spent a good 20 min or so inside the station explaining the events that took place to the rude and unhelpful police officer, and during all this time, the rest of the police officers were having their afternoon tea/snack time, instead of attending the car accident which happened only 400 m away from the station. Unbelievable indeed.

I went outside of the police station to answer a call when a young police officer walked out of the station as well. He looked at me, looked at our Mercedes and asked if it was my car, I said yes. Immediately he looked annoyed and said “You can’t park here, move your car”

I replied “We are just making a police statement inside the station, we will be done soon”

He said in a rude tone “I don’t care, move your car” despite the fact that there are still 3 other empty spaces for other police cars to park. The police station is located on a very busy street, and to find another parking space in peak hour traffic was impossible, so I tried to reason with him and said “Tell me where you want me to move my car and I will move it”
The police officer said “I don’t care where you move it, just move it”

At this point, I am getting rather pissed off by his attitude, so I just stared at him and refused to move my car and he stared back at me, until he got a call by his partner to get inside the police car and drove away.

I continued on my phone conversation when a female officer came over to me, asked me the same questions again, I told her the same thing all over again, she won’t have any of it, and insist on me to move our Mercedes. I told them I will move it when another parking space became available. She didn’t look too pleased but she went back into the station.

Within five minutes, another, different police officer came out of the station and told me to move my car. Yet again I explained the situation to him, telling him I have to wait for the car to be inspected by another police officer; well this is what he said next

“You can just keep driving around the block, I don’t care as long as you move it’’

Now I am visibly angry, so I started the car engine and signaled to leave my parking space, but because of the car accident 400 m up the road, the traffic was virtually a stand still, I wasn’t able to move the car and the police office didn’t bother to wait and return back to the station.

As soon as he went away, I switched off the engine and just sat inside the car, still parked at the same spot. Within 5 min later, the same female officer and another, different male officer approached my car, both shaking their heads and ordered me to move it, so I said loudly to them “What is the bloody point if I have to bring it back to you guys for damage inspection anyway?”

It was absolutely astonishing to know that with a space of 20 min, 4 different police officers have approached me and ordered me to move my car, I have received more of their attention than the two drivers who just had a car accident 400 m up the road, which has blocked all traffic to and from that road intersection. None, absolutely none of them bothered to even walk over to the crash site to direct traffic, or sort out the mess.

Meanwhile my mum and my brother were inside the station, trying to convince the police officer to at least write down a police statement so we can claim our insurance. Eventually he did, and had a quick look at the damage, and then told us to leave. We were there for over an hour, for something that should have taken less than half of that time. I was absolutely disgusted by their attitude, and the lack of respect they displayed towards my mum, my brother and me.

This isn’t the first time when we have to deal with rude, unhelpful police officers. About 3 years ago, our Mercedes was rear ended in traffic; the other driver got out of the car and started to threaten my mother. The police came, but refuse to write a police report or statement, or even have a word with the other driver.

Is it because the police generally don’t care, or is it the car? Do you guys have other similar experiences at all?
 
Monster: thanks for the raise in my blood pressure :D All I can say is , SUE THEM IF YOU CAN lol. Well of course this is the case almost everywhere now. Everybody is complaining because of the weird attitude towards "decent" car owners. Last day I was reading a thread over at rennteam, the guy lost customers and never came back to his shop because he once drove a "loud" M3 !!! that's Germany btw.

Back to the Police part, well here in UAE, is the same scenario, most policemen are either uneducated or barely educated. Some of them pick on prestige car owners purposly and I know this because I had a friend working for the force and I was sitting at his office once, all Abu Dhabi traffic policemen had to pass by him to collect their pistols, some of them had a small conversation with us, and they all seem to have the same mentality ! taking their own revenge from the socity by such behaviour ! if I can't afford it , let me humilate him in front of others !

Seriously now I barely go downtown Abu Dhabi in my Panamera and thank god I live in the suburbs. I enjoy my premium cars on the highways, small towns, Yas island and dubai ... Once I was stopped by the Police, my older cars used to have illegal % of tint but now it is as transparent as it can get since I have no nerves left to argue with the police.
 
Send your write up to the local paper. They may write an article about it and get others upset at how their tax dollars are spent. Don't mention what type of car you have.

I think I would have moved the car when the officers insisted. I would have moved it over to one of the other spots reserved for police cars... "You said move it and you didn't care where".

See if you can have someone locate where the truck lives. Return the favor of a broken mirror or flat tires (cut the valve stem so it is just a pain the in arse) ;)
 
I have noticed resentment from some Australians. I've had my car spat on, my wife's car has been keyed twice and my new 7 Series has had what I can only hope was MacDonald's thick shake thrown all over it.

I haven't had any problems with the Police. I hope this is a unique, unfortunately with you Monster, and not a sign of things to come. I will however, comment on what I would call the decline of Australian Policemen and women. I have a personal story of a family friend who is a cop, and all of his stories are gratuitous tales of bashings and how thoroughly he enjoys them. It seems to me that some people are move into the profession on the basis of what they see in Hollywood and look for nothing more than a hitman style career.
 
That's a very frustrating situation and worse, yelling at Police or pissing them off will only make matters worse.
 
Yep same shit in sweden..once we had an accident..called the cops..and they asked is anyone hurt..we said no..but the car is smashed..
So they were like..ohh we dont have time for that..
And this truck driver was also un co operative..

I dont belive in to much power for 1 single human being.. they always tend to abuse it in someway.. cops are a prime example!!!
 
There is nothing in your account which evidences that this ill-treatment had anything to do with the fact you were driving a Mercedes. Sounds like they just felt they had better things to do than fill in paperwork over a broken mirror.

With the parking -- if it's a police zone, they have every right to tell you to move your car; it's illegal for you to hover for even a second in it. I don't condone their insolence though.
 
Hmm I don't think it has much to do with the car, but more to do with the culture of the police. Weather it is a widespread departmental issue or restricted to that particular station, who knows.

Germaniac, I think the point was that so many officers had so much time to 'enforce' a minor parking infringement but refused to actually record a REAL complaint. That they made such a big deal about the parking infringement, in light of the circumstances, is absurd.

The police report will be required by the insurance company to take the matter up with the truck driver. Why should Monster and his family have to pay for anything?

On a side note, you'd think in this day and age people would get over judging people by appearances. What car you drive doesn't mean jack shit! You could be a HOBO and drive a Benz or a multi millionaire and drive a Ssanyong.
 
Sounds like Nassau County Police in NY to me; forget the NYPD, they make them look like sweetie pies.

It doesn't sound as if it had anything to do with the car, just an example of the police flexing their power muscle by telling a civilian what to do and what they can't do.

Next time just make sure you have the officer's badge number and ask to deal with a supervisor the next time you call/see them at the precint. May not help, but it's worth a try.

How irritating.
 
So moral of the story, if you get into an accident, tell the police there are brains splattered all over the road, then they should come running. They love to see brains.
 
There is nothing in your account which evidences that this ill-treatment had anything to do with the fact you were driving a Mercedes. Sounds like they just felt they had better things to do than fill in paperwork over a broken mirror.

Well I would think so, but the police officers were having their afternoon tea while there were two cars in bits 400 m down the road, at a major intersection. I can also hear the TV in the background. So there are better things for them to do, but they are just taking their time. On top of that, we just witness that car accident, I would think they will want to speak to us about it since we were directly behind the VW Golf which got hit.

With the parking -- if it's a police zone, they have every right to tell you to move your car; it's illegal for you to hover for even a second in it. I don't condone their insolence though.
Yes they have every right to tell me to move the car, but with traffic backed up way back down the road because of the accident further up ahead, and because it is during peak hour traffic, there is no other parking spot available. Also, they will have to inspect the car anyway, so I will have to bring it back to the station, and well park at the police parking space.

If they politely ask me then yeah I will move it but their confrontational style is just very unhelpful.


Hmm I don't think it has much to do with the car, but more to do with the culture of the police. Weather it is a widespread departmental issue or restricted to that particular station, who knows.
I have to deal with a different police station before, they aren't as bad but not much better. My Subaru was actually hit by the police car and the police officer refused to hand over his details, he only exchange details after his supervisor arrived at the scene and made him do it.


Germaniac, I think the point was that so many officers had so much time to 'enforce' a minor parking infringement but refused to actually record a REAL complaint. That they made such a big deal about the parking infringement, in light of the circumstances, is absurd.
It is a joke, a friend got pulled to the side of the road because he was driving a C220 CDI with his P plates on and the police said he isn't suppose to drive a turbo charged car. :t-crazy2:

The police report will be required by the insurance company to take the matter up with the truck driver. Why should Monster and his family have to pay for anything?
Exactly, I called the insurance company today, the insurance company said we can't claim anything because we don't have the truck driver's details.

On a side note, you'd think in this day and age people would get over judging people by appearances. What car you drive doesn't mean jack shit! You could be a HOBO and drive a Benz or a multi millionaire and drive a Ssanyong.
Totally agree.
 
Sounds like Nassau County Police in NY to me; forget the NYPD, they make them look like sweetie pies.

It doesn't sound as if it had anything to do with the car, just an example of the police flexing their power muscle by telling a civilian what to do and what they can't do.

Next time just make sure you have the officer's badge number and ask to deal with a supervisor the next time you call/see them at the precint. May not help, but it's worth a try.

How irritating.
I suppose if we were in a different car, they will be more likely to help, perhaps.
Speaking to the supervisor might work but if the police officers in the stations are like that, I don't think the supervisor will be any different.
 

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