Caution driving with kr8 LED battery

[Sojourner]

I had to pick up my son from work last night, so I filled a cartomizer for the drive. But instead of putting it on my trusty eGo battery, or Bartleby, or even my laser mod, I was a bit nostalgic and put it on one of my older kr8 white batteries with blue LED light. (wanted it to look like a cig while I was driving, right?)

As I was driving and vaping, I noticed flashing lights behind me. I was surprised to realize that I was being pulled over. The officer asked for my license and registration, and I reached over to the the floor of the passenger side to grab my purse. I asked him why I had been stopped, and he said, "You don't know?" I replied that I did not. He then stated, "Well you were driving while talking on your cell phone." I explained that I hadn't been and pointed out that my phone was put away in the purse which had been out of reach on the floor. He asked to see the phone and then said, "Oh, the phone lights aren't blue." I then realized that he must have seen the blue LED of the ecig so I showed it to him and how it worked. He, in fact, thought it was cool and said he hadn't seen anything like it before, and then proceeded to apologize for having pulled me over.

So moral of the story, if you're driving - don't vape an LED device.

 

[Shortstuff116]

Excellent story. That's the first one I've seen where someone has been pulled over for/while using their PV.

Very interesting...

 

[TheBlueAdept]

My Vapor King has an orange LED; I was thinking about this while driving last night, and checked in my rearview.. I can't see anyone thinking it wasn't an analog cig...

I have a VP2 coming in any day now; it has a cool design feature that you can put the battery in 'backwards' and the LED lights don't come on...

But I can totally see the point for other LED colors!!! And in the daytime, some have pointed out that some devices look like they might be pipes for illicit drug use or some such...

 

[jaded]

The blue lights on mine kinda worry me about being pulled over because VA law is funny about blue lights in cars. You can't have Neons or led's in blue and don't want a cop to see it and think its something else.

 

[TheBlueAdept]

There were some issues awhile back with people messing around with laser pointers, shining them in other people's eyes while driving and such.... My biggest fear is having a police officer see me using my PV and think I'm trying to blind people or something...

 

[TheBlueAdept]

I realize it's just a matter of explaining, but having to even go through it would suck.

 

[jaded]

Police are the last people I want to try to explain anything too.

 

[me who]

Police are the last people I want to try to explain anything too.

Same here, certainly not high on my priority list for show and tell.

 

[timothy]

thats the way i feel when im using my chuck during the day

 

[Katattack]

a 901 cart cap covers the led up nicely. It fits on the kr808 battery perfectly.

 

[Sojourner]

I like the cart cap cover idea. I'll try that. Since the incident of being pulled over, I switched to driving with my Janty eGo. No LEDS on the end to contend with. I recently received my eGo auto battery, use a 510 adapter, and screw on a cartomizer. I don't think this will draw attention. When I feel nostalgic again and use my kr8 battery, I will try that cart cap cover idea. Thanks Katattack!

 

[martha1014]

Where I am from the police do not pull you over for using your cell phone. I did not know this was a violation.

I have never seen anyone using an ecig. I have noticed on this forum there is someone who vaped that lives about 20 miles from me.

 

[wood_510]

Well, I have only been questioned by the police once in my vaping career, for lack of a better term. I was outside talking with some friends (all firemen like myself) and an officer stopped and flipped on his lights. I thought that he was just picking because he knew all of us. It turned out that he thought that we were using some new kind of crack pipe since I was showing it off and letting some of the guys give it a try. It was an interesting conversation, but to make a long story short, he appologized and went on his way. Now the guys at the station always antagonize him when we are on a scene with him by pulling out their PV's and vaping away. HEHE!!! leave it to a fireman and a cop to not get along so well...

 

[MaxUT]

HEHE!!! leave it to a fireman and a cop to not get along so well...

It's a tradition.

 

[kristin]

Funny story!

I usually use my passthrough in the car - no LED!

 

[Cielo]

i have several orange/red leds that i specifically bought to use for driving at night. You cant really see any color of leds during the daytime unless its real cloudy and overcast.

 

[Jaganic_Solitude]

HEHE!!! leave it to a fireman and a cop to not get along so well...

They never do, especially ex firefighters >.<

AHEM...Not all cops are not so savvy about PVs, one cop's wife actually vapes and it was nice talking about e cigs with her while her hubby sits there, slackjawed and crud

 

[JamBandPhan]

This is one of my biggest concerns, while we travel across the country this summer. I understand that we are not doing anything wrong, but trying to explain that to an officer that is trying to find something wrong, well, that can be a little scary. The fact is they can stop you for any reason, but if they think you are using some kind of weird drug paraphernalia, assuming they never saw an e cig before, I could see potential for some harassment. Esp. if you don't look like average joe-american... I will be carrying all my e cig supplies, and all the extra atty's, batteries, juice, etc...We will be pulling one of those tiny 13' fiberglass "egg" campers (SCAMP) that is vintage 1983, that we restored over the last year. On a trip up to Nashville a couple of years ago, we were pulling the egg trailer, and got stopped for what seemed to be no reason, dogs were instantly around the car/trailer and they wanted to see inside. So that was disturbing as well, but we had nothing to hide, so there was no problem. That was a situation where there was no questioning, no probable cause, just a complete violation of our rights, 2 dogs running around sniffing for no reason other than we were pulling a trailer. I also noticed other trailers getting stopped, so it was some kind of task force in action. I just don't want to get hassled over an e cig if we were to get stopped again on our next trip, trying to convince them that it is not something illegal. Shouldn't they be educated about these things by now? I am hoping for the best, and plan to keep my exposed e cig stuff to a minimum so we have less to explain if the unfortunate situation does occur.

 

[TheBlueAdept]

I agree, the police should know about eCigs, but at the same time I respect that they have a really tough job to do and with huge variety of both threats and different types of drug paraphernalia, I can easily see how it's difficult to be able to recognize them all easily and instantly.

Having said that, I'm sure there are plenty of stereotypical 'bored cops' looking for an excuse; nothing you can do there, they'll find one anyway!

 

[Shortstuff116]

There's really nothing else we can do but if confronted with such a scenario I would do everything I could to explain exactly what these items are for and stick with it. Other than the actual syringe with needle (which I would never carry with me) there really is nothing illegal in our possession that I'm aware of. Explain what items you have, what they are used for and ask that you be allowed to show the officer(s) how they are used.

If any law enforcement officer has never seen or heard of e-cigs before you can't blame them for being suspicious, they are only doing their job. Just be as courteous and professional as you can be (that in itself can go a long way). If for whatever reason I was to be cited for possession of such items and they were confiscated, I would just make sure to explain to the officer to retain the items as evidence and request that you appear before a judge the very next day to plead your case. Obviously, any charges dropped, return of your items and an apology from the court and officer(s) involved would be the only outcome. All of this may sound like such an inconvenience and hassle, but it would simply have to be done.

Laws vary from state to state, but in general LEO's have to have a reason to pull you over. If you've ever watched Cops, you'll find that 9 times out of 10 when someone gets pulled over it is because they either have faulty equipment (brake light out or cracked windshield or expired tags) or they did something very simple like not stopping fully at a stop sign or not wearing a seat belt - they gave the officer a legal reason to pull them over. There are a lot of fine lines but if you use common sense you shouldn't have any problems, but there will always be a few who will push their luck a little too far and thus suffer the consequences.