I've been burned by Radar detectors before. Here's a story:
Radar detectors are ILLEGAL here in Manitoba, and in our neighbouring province of Ontario (actually, they're illegal pretty much anywhere in Canada, so to any of you Yanks thinking of vacationing up here, leave your detectors at home!)
In the summer, I do a lot of mountain biking with my buddies. Typically on Sundays we'll take a road trip with our bikes and drive to Ontario to ride in the Canadian Shield, where there are some EPIC trails.
So, one particular Sunday this summer we were doing just that. We had a convoy of about 4 cars going. My buddy, let's call him John, was driving his F-150 with his racks on it, and about 10 bikes on his truck. I was following behind in my 08 Civic SI (that car was a ticket attactor in itself...I got so many when I owned that car!).
Now, John owns a radar detector, and he loves to speed. So, obviously, we were using it while speeding on our way to our destination.
While in Manitoba, we were driving about 80-85 miles an hour, which doesn't sound like much to you interstaters, but when you consider that the speed limit on the trans-canada highway is 62, it's a fair bit. To John's credit, the radar detector saved us once, as we slowed down well in advance for a speed trap, and drove harmlessly by.
Enter Ontario. The highway drops down to a single lane in each direction as it goes through the Canadian Shield (which is ridiculous, btw, this is our ONLY East-West road through the country, and it's single lane for about 1000kms)
The speed limit drops down to about 50 through this section of road, while we were doing about 70-75 mph. I was following right behind John and his F-150. The other two cars were a little farther behind us.
Now, the problem with this section of road is it curves through the shield, and I'm guessing you can't get a very good signal on the radar detector until its too late.
So anyway, all of a sudden I see a 'shadow' SUV pass us going the opposite way. As he passes me, he turns on his cherries and slows down, waits for traffic to clear, then turns around. He proceeds to pass the cars behind me, then passes me, and pulls up behind John, cherries flashing all the time. John pulls over. I'm thinking I got away, until I see the cop, still on the road and almost stopped, stick his hand out of the window and thumb me to the side of the road.
The OPP officer walks up to my window and asks me if I know how fast I was going (I said yes...I NEVER bullshit with officers, or try to talk my way out of it...I got caught, and that's too bad). He then asks me where my radar detector is. I didn't have one and I tell him so. He tells me to wait here.
He then walks up to John's truck and proceeds to ask him the same thing. When he finally comes back to my window, he tells me that my buddy John told him (the cop) that he doesn't have a radar detector, but he can't speak for his friends (essentially stabbing me in the back, as he DID have one, and one of the girls in his truck hid it down her shirt). Anyway, I make an offer for the cop to search my car, since I had nothing to hide (but it would have been inconvenient, since it was packed with biking gear).
Well, the cop goes back to his car, and comes back a short while later with a ticket for John and myself. Actually, the tickets are pretty reasonable in Ontario. $75 for 20 mph over. In Manitoba, that ticket would have been $250. But, the thing is, if John hadn't had a radar detector, we might have gotten away with a warning.
Regardless, the morals of the storey are these:
Cops in Canada have radar detector detectors.
Friends who will stab you in the back to save their own bacon aren't really that good of friends at all.
Speeding is bad.
Shortly after that experience I sold my civic, and bought my Ranger. I've had my truck now for about 8 monthes, and not one single speeding ticket yet! I never speed now. I set my cruise control AT the speed limit, and off I go!
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