An elderly fellow who worked for the family business when I was a kid (we won't discuss how long ago that was) was stopped one night for "no tail light."

When he got out to look, the light was on, but the police person insisted it had been out moments before.

Police person applied a sharp rap to the fender and the light went out.

Police person applied a succession of additional sharp raps but the light refused to come back on.

"Pop" then had a hilarious time (according to the way he told the story at work the next day) accusing police person of false accusation, destruction of property, interference with innocent citizens, and a few other "crimes" in language best not repeated.

According to the story, it all ended with the police person not writing a ticket, and offering to pay the cost of repair if "Pop" would bring a receipt to the patrol station.

I haven't recently encountered an enforcement officer/agent quite that accomodating - or anyone since "Pop" quite so capable of making a tall tale sound like the absolute truth.

John