Thought I'd share this funny but irritating incident.

A few weeks ago I was driving through some pretty severe lake effect snow in upstate New York during daylight hours with my headlights and rear fog light on. Out of nowhere I see the flashing red/blue lights in the rear view and thought "what the hell is this now?" I was going well under the speed limit due to the limited visibility conditions. And I was especially annoyed due to being stopped 2 other times very recently for totally bogus reasons.

Anyway, the state trooper pulls me over and comes up to the window and says "you know you have a taillight out". I knew I didn't because the bulb failure light was not on, and I immediately figured that she was referring to the rear fog light. I said, "I don't think so officer, but I believe you're referring to my rear fog light. It's actually a safety feature to make me more visible to other drivers in inclement weather." Of course she looked at me like I had 2 heads. She said, "no, you have a taillight out." I asked if I could get out and have a look and she said "sure". So we go to the back of the car and she points to the opposite light of the rear fog and says "you see, one side is out." To which I replied, "Officer, it's supposed to be like that. It only works on one side. Watch, there's a switch and I can turn it off with a switch." Which I did, and then she said "Yup, now they're both out." To which I applied a face palm. I tried one more time to explain but she simply said "I'm not going to stand here arguing with you."

Then she took my license and registration while I fumed inside the car anticipating getting some bullshit $200 ticket for absolutely no reason - other than being a responsible and safe driver. I also got the user manual out in anticipation of further educating her. In the end it wasn't necessary as when she returned she just said "ok, you're all set. Better get that fixed though." And I replied "sure thing Officer."

On the rest of the journey I saw a few late model Mercedes with the rear fog lights on and just laughed, but the whole affair was still maddening and irritating.