I am quite intrigued. Last night I was coming from Lakeside driving nicely when I see this BMW come fast and jump a few lanes and passes me. I though, let’s see if we can follow it, so I give it some gas at which point I saw the BMW in the 2nd lane, my speedo said something with 3 digits, won’t post what it was, and I see the BMW come behind me at a fair distance and starts flashing and making his indicators go left right left right. I though ok slow down and let him pass, I slow down signal and move to 2nd lane, by this point he is right behind me. I am not sure but I think his lights kept going on and off like police cars do, left on right off, left off right on and indicators also left right left right (my girlfriend said that she though his lighst were flashing on off asynchronously (is that the correct word?). At this point I though ******** unmarked police car, had no fear whatsoever was just pissed I got done, so I slow down further and start signaling left, move over to hard shoulder slowing down about 30mph at which point the BMW signals right overtakes me and is gone out of my sight.
What can I make out of it? Could some ass be playing around? I found it very odd that someone driving at high speed could flash his lights and signal left right in a well timed manner and have asynchronous flashing lights, if they were flashing at separate intervals, can’t be sure of that. If it was an idiot playing around, well I can only say thanks for making me slow down, I had 4 people in my car and I was responsible for them, 3 digit speeds were not safe. If it was a police car then why didn’t it stop me? Can they take your numberplate down or record you and send you the fine can court summons without stopping you and giving you the producer?
Don’t think that would be a copper… He would most likely have hidden blue light hidden somewhere in the front of the car… Indicators are not enough to make you legally pull over.
Seems like it might have been an undercover car, but on a different call (or got a different call while they were following you) and wanted you to get out of their way…Although to be honest it would not be difficult to wire up a circuit to do that to the headlights would it?
But how come if you were following the BMW did it end up behind you?
It could well have been an unmarked police car…however there are numerous unmarked cars out there that have absolutely nothing to do with traffic , and they may well have been going somewhere in a hurry. You may have upset them a bit by trying to play with them, but I would have thought that if they were going to do anything about it they would have done it yesterday. They can report you on your registration number, but given the circumstances you’ve described I would have said it would be unlikely to happen.
There is a white van I have seen turning onto the A3 at Roehampton and then runing down to Raynes Park Flyover then towards Sutton on Grand Drive SW20 that has a two tone siren. I am sure it isn’t a Police vehicle as it looks just like any old battered white van, and has only one person in the cab who doesn’t appear ot drive like a trained police driver, but he uses the siren when there is traffic blocking him, and people do move out of the way. I have seen him going across the dual cariageway that crosses Grand Drive on red with the siren going.
If the lights were flashing asynchronously (correct word btw), then I’d guess it was a copper of some sort. Doubt it was a traffic cop, otherwise he’d have pulled you over. More likely cid or something, and wanted to slow you down but not the hassle of stopping you and giving a b*llocking/ticket etc.
Totally agree with you there Elad, re the unmarked car? …ive seen the same car myself…and i really think it IS an unmarked police car and they must have been on another job, or you would have been done…you were lucky! :)…OR…WAS it someone whos got a kick out of wiring up their car…if so how the hell are we going to know, cos ive seen that car myself !! hmmm
Aaah, think that makes what i thought right then…as i said, ive seen the same car…and i saw the ol lights going as well…i think you were lucky mate :w00t:
The BMW looked like a green or turquoise colour and I think it had tinted windows. I didn’t pay much attention, the fact that the car never tried to race me or take me off the road or anything silly. He came nicely behind me, didn’t accelerate or overtake me. I slowed down because of him and took my time to pull over.
Elad mate, it went zooming past me and I decided to follow it, for some reason after I reached a certain speed it pulled into the 2nd lane and let me go past, after a few seconds by which time the BMW was quite far behind me it decided to come after me and get my attention.
Seems like a lot of hassle just for a joke. Besides the joke would be on him, couldn’t catch up to me so he had to play the copper to get me to slow down:)
I never felt intimidated or scared, if I was going to get done it was my fault. After I slowed down I felt good because I realised I had 3 (4 with me) other people in the car that I was responsible for and what I have done wasn’t safe at all.
I didn’t pay much attention mate, saw him go past very fast, only the colour which was a light colour, greenish or light blue, I made a combination of both and got turqoise:D could have been an BMW 330i, all BMWs look the same to me so no idea 100%
I didn’t really care who was driving the car and how many they were, I just wanted to stop and get it over with ASAP. I would have followed them afterwards but didn’t see the point, in about 1 mile I was hitting the 50/40mph area with cameras.
At that speed the last thing on my mind was to check if they were real police. If they weren’t how would I know anyhow. Under what circumstances to we stop? Only if we see blue lights or can some police cars be without blue lights and by law we still have to stop if they signal us?
If it was a major A ass then the joke’s on him because I didn’t get scared, couldn’t care less as the action was taken and was too late to do anything about it except take it like a man. I was under control and kept cool at all times and he had to use fancy lights to slow me down and catch up to me:w00t::w00t::w00t:
The Met have a vast quantity of BMW 5 series both in Saloon and estate versions
Given the location, and if it had been 4 up I would have suggested a vehicle on a driving course. They wouldn’t be issueing tickets…
You have to stop if requested to do so by a Police Officer in uniform, the vehicle they are in is irrelevent. The manner in which they will (or should) ask you to stop is described in the Highway Code. Most forces have policy about when and how an unmarked car can or should be used to stop someone. The issue as to what constitutes uniform is really long winded but a court case (I can’t remember which one) stated that the Police Officers only need to be readily identified by their dress as Police Officers.
The unmarked BMW I have seen pulling bikes and cars on York Road Battersea has blue lights and illuminated signs saying things like “police pull over” that are just visible when not illuminated through the tinted glass and flashing blue arrows.
Strangley enough I was just crossing the Strand on foot just now and a light blue Mark 3 Mondeo with lights flashing as has been described came down the road. It had tinted windows and I could not see the blue lights behind the windows I mentioned, however this had a blue light on the roof above the driver attached in a Starsky and Hutch stylee. I know it wasn’t a BMW 330 but the late Mondeos are very similar.
in my experiance, the Met unmarked cars, that are for responding to calls , traffic patrols etc will have flashing headlights but also blue grill lights and they are usually wired togther so if the heads flash the blues come on !!! and they usually have a roof light, 'kojak’lamp.if they bother to pop it on …
I remember hearing something (possibly on here!) similar to this about a year ago about a van in the same kind of area. I think that the general consensus then was that it was someone who had got hold of a set of neenaws from somewhere rather than a proper emergency services motor.
