We were hustling up Interstate 5 to San Francisco. One of my passengers, a former military tech type, scoffed at the V1. “You paid HOW much for that thing? I got a good radar detector for $100!”
As often happens on I-5, a small convoy formed. Looking over, I could see that one of them had “a good radar detector,” a fact my passenger pointedly noted.
“Great,” I thought, “now I’ve got my decoys!” Guys like that suck up the cops like a vacuum cleaner.
In due course, V1 showed a Ka signal coming toward us fast in the opposite lane. This useful information was not provided to the other guy by his good detector. I watched as the signal grew stronger, and at the right moment slowed down and hid in a line of traffic as my decoys sped on. I watched as the CHP I’d tracked came into view, slowed and turned across the median. I followed his signal, now coming up behind us very fast indeed. He blew by us in excess of 120 mph, a dark shape in the night with only his headlights, and his radar signal, to betray him. A few miles up the road, we saw Decoy #1 pulled over.
Later we came along side of Decoy #2. In due course, V1 indicated what turned out to be another CHP, this one hiding in the shadow of an overpass. As before, our cop-sucker met his fate while we proceeded in a lawful fashion until the signal faded to nothing and V1 once again fell silent in the night.
In all, we avoided five radar traps that evening and made great time on our 450-mile journey. As we pulled into the Bay Area, my friend, the scoffing former military guy, broke the silence. “How much did you pay for that thing? And how do I get one for myself?”
Paul A. Spiegel
San Francisco, CA