Valentine One Radar Detector Moment of the Month
January 2005: Sheriffs Do Watch Their Mirrors

I was running an early morning commute across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, all posted at a blistering 55 mph.

At a gas station I encountered a couple of plain-clothes sheriffs; must have been going to a meeting or something. I followed them for the next 100 plus miles, trailing about half mile behind. They were in a hurry and blazed trail at around 80 mph. I hung back far enough not to be obvious, yet not so far that I’d lose sight of their taillights on the long straights. They left their radar on, so my Valentine One kept reminding me that they were dead ahead.

Everything was going fine and I was making good time. Until, that is, one of them apparently noticed I was back there and radioed ahead to set up a little trap for me.

Suddenly my mute was overridden by a second bogey. Then a third. The Sheriffs were driving through a storm of instant on, and I was getting the early warning, following at a half mile. So I backed it down to a comfortably slow 57 mph. Soon enough, I hit the ambush: one state patrol in the ditch facing me and the second a quarter mile further along hiding behind a grocery store. That makes three different bogeys, including the sheriffs, in three different locations.

No problem for V1. But no other detector on the market could have covered this unique trap.

Jeff Moyle
Houghton, MI