Another Window Tint Ticket story
 

So, I was on my way down to Emerald Isle NC, about 2 hrs from Wilmington, and I was pulling out of a Food Lion parking lot, sitting at a stoplight with my windows up and my sunroof open. I saw a State Trooper pass in front of me, but did not think much of it. I continued down the two lane road towards my destination. After about 4 minutes of driving 45mph, I see this same trooper pulled over on the side of the road, not doing anything. I immediately rolled down my windows, and as i proceeded to pass him, I watched my rearview mirror. After about 6 cars he pulled out and followed for nearly a mile. Soon I saw him come out into the oncoming lane, dart behind me, and turn his lights on. I knew immediately that I had no way out.

He came up to the car, asking me L&R and then asked me if I knew how dark my windows were. I played Mr. Innocent and said that i supposed they were 35% (legal). I rolled up my window, he put the light meter on and it read 20.2%. He immediately said he was going to give me a $170 dollar ticket and that if I didn't take the tint off and show him that it was off on the day of my court date, that it would go on my record as a misdemeanor. I'm 17 and I hadn't, until this point been pulled for anything. He told me verbatim, "If you would have been driving a run-of-the mill SUV, I wouldn't have pulled you. But this car stands out, especially black on black." Overall it sucks because i have to take the tint off, and on a Black 8, 20% looks extremely good.

Another couple things that suck; I have to drive all the way back to Emerald Isle for my court date...(we'll see about that) and I was half a block from my destination, which is a twice a year Church Retreat. I was actually breaking so i could make the turn into the camp, he clocked me at 35Mph in a 45MPH. You should have seen the look on his face after I told him that I was seconds away from a church retreat, because his initial question was, "what is someone your age doing down here...you came to party didn't ya?" Haha.

cops are so gay about tint, get some papers and you can all the tint you want

my mom is a doctor. trust me its crossed my mind.

I guess your god didn't feel like helping you get out of a ticket that night, eh? :P

dude its so worth it, I was riding with my friend in his 350z (5% on all windows including the windshield) and some cop pulled him over. He showed him his papers. His step-dad is a scuba driver, so he got papers incase he has to carry scuba gear lol. The cop knew he was full of shit but he couldnt do anyhting. It was awesome to see the cop helpless

that is hilarious. im PDIC, i wonder if i could get those papers.

If tint was a misdemeanor people would be going to jail all the time for it. I dunno what NC rules are like, but the vast majority of tint tickets are "fix it" where you pay the fine and risk another ticket if you don't fix it. Probably trying to scare ya.

How do you get papers? I want papers.

you have to have a "reason" to get papers. It is easy here to get papers idk about other places. Some reasons are: If you have fair skin and can get sun burnt in your car, Security reasons. Saftey reason, If you have bad eyes. That is just some of the reasons, I am sure there are countless more.

Who should I go to for those kind of papers?

I know that in NY state u can exempt from it if u have a medical condition. not sure about other reasons. maybe I should check ?

I hate these cops being gay about Tint. its not even a big deal, but they have to harass regular people so they feel that they have more power. bunch of pussies.

I'm a vampire, I need papers.

now im curious...so yea in ny...wats the reasons?

Ridiculous. Just rip the damn tint off and replace it with 35%. I learned a long time ago that running 5% or 20% is just not worth it, even if it looks better. I went through all the grief of getting it inspected at certain places, and rolling down the windows whenever you see a cop. Holy shit, it's definitely not worth it. I'd never do that crap again. Not worth the hassle.

around hear its not to hard to get papers, but I am not sure bout everyhwere else. The following can be done if you have lighter skin. Go out in the sun one day and get a nice little sun burn. Go to a skin doctor and say "I just got back from a long road trip where I was in my car all day and I got sun burn." If you have bad sight say the sun is irritating your eyes. Ect....

I have done it for 5 years, and every time I look at my car I know it is worth it. Note: I have shield tint aswell

Wow that cop was a complete a-hole

I don't like getting pulled over, man. It just plain sucks, and I'd rather avoid giving any cop a reason, so now I keep everything legal, including having an ugly ass front license plate and no tint at all... well my car is fairly loud, but I can coast :D:

20% lmao
Just use paper mache so ya can't see out of your car at all at night. Then it will be real easy to rip off.
And anyone putting on the windshield is a total idiot. Plz stay out of my state

either you misread, or you're making a somewhat off topic comment... rather sure he didnt tint his windshield... and for side windows... some people say they can see fine, others can't. I personally wouldn't go that dark I dont think, but if they can see well enough, then oh well.

or the removal of the tint will let him avoid an accident in the future.

tint is definitely not a misdemeanor, especially since you weren't doing anything else illegal. you can try to get papers and fight the ticket (also stating his unreasonable, and impossible, threat). fix it tickets don't go on your record. at least not here in cali..

misdemeanor ?

cop is just trying to scare you, try to fight the ticket.

at this point it's not even worth the hassle of fighting the damn ticket. i'm just going to get 35% put back on and just deal with it. A friend of mine has done all my tinting and he said he'll do it all for free, cause he likes my car so much :). and i've never found the 20% hard to see out of. i love it. during the day its perfect and at night you just have to know your car a little better...

NYPD are nothing but bunch of pussies. they pull cars that looks nice. probably due to the fact that they drive nothing but some piece of shit chevy/dodge/ford.

I had 2 tint tickets so far. First one, I got pulled over when it was past midnight at around times square ! I was like wtf ? when they was giving me the ticket I saw like at least 20 cars passby with tints thats WAY darker than mine, and those faggots(cops) didnt pull any of them over. I was like wow. fucking assholes.

2nd time happened just couple weeks ago, it was like 8 in the morning, slow traffic, about to get pass Lincoln Tunnel, cops on the left side of the street, I was on the right lane (3 lanes), windows all rolled down at that time (cuz its nice out there), fucking fags just have to walk over and told me to roll my windows up.

thats why in another thread, couple months ago some NYPD got shot, I said I have no sympathy for NYPD. Yep, thats right. Cuz NYPD, ever since 911, has been overpowered and being complete dicks to good citizens. Cuz they know that all they can do is to pick on us. Murder rate just jumped another 28% when compared to last year. instead of 5-6 cops waiting on the side of the street to look for tint windows, they could've just patrol around for more serious criminals . sheesh.

:lol2:

Ha he thought you were going to party in Emerald isle? HAHA!! I was there 2 years ago and there are no parties going on there at all. Myrtle and Cherry Grove are the places to party.

I know. I laughed to myself. You know just as well as I do that only state troopers looking for something to do will pull in NC. I thought you might find this story pretty interesting after i consulted you about the 20%. lol.

Yeah man sorry to hear about the ticket. Mine is like 26% right now and I have never had a problem with it. and i've been all over NC.

He pulled you over because of your car... Aholes. I have like 25% TINT and it is the mirrored type. I was travelling on a divided highway here in TX and a State Trooper passed me in the opposite direction. I was not speeding but i saw him dive into the grass median and whup around with his lights on. I knew he was going to harrass me about the tint. As soon as he got out of his cruiser he already had his tint meter in his hand. " I am going to have to check your tint sir". to myself "Whatever". came up as 23%. he then went back to his cruiser to check for warrants, came back and gave me a warning.

Then in Converse were I live, a local cop pulled me over in front of the ploice station. did not even ask for License/Insurance, checked my tint and told me it is not enough out of spec to waste his time.

before I had my 8 I drove an Eclipse GT with 20% tint all around. A San Antonio cop pulled me over for speeding, then metered the tint. wrote me a ticket for both and told me "You better remove your tint before coming to court or the Judge will increase your fine from the bench" again "Whatever" I took it to an Attorney who went to court for me, had the tint ticket thrown out, and the speeding reduced to defered judication for 90 days. cost me about $150.

Cops go for the nice cars, I agree they seem jealous...

At least contest the ticket and go before the Judge/Pros at the intitial hearing. They will do anything to get ur ass out of there and not waste their time with an actual court trial. Just say something like "sir i was told by the tint shop that is was legal, is there any way i can get the fine reduced?" They WILL reduce it. I have done this for 2 speeding tickets and one tint ticket. I was guilty as sin on ALL accounts but gave some lame excuse like that asking for a cost reduction and they abliged on all of them. Reduction might be $50, it might be $150 (depends on initial amount), but at least its something, right? Better than paying the full amount which u would had to have paid anyways. Damn ball breakers

Ya. I'm most likely going to get the tint taken off before the date, and if i do that they said the ticket would be dropped. No fines or anything. Then I'll probably just put 35% back on.

I have beat more than one window tint ticket with a spare set of side windows and hatch glass (rx7). Takes about 45 minutes to swap the 3 out on an FC, drive to the police station to get the ticket dropped, drive back home and swap again.

Oh, one time when I had several rx7s on hand (I used to fix and resell them) I took a different rx7 that didnt have tint and got it dropped. And it was a different color than the one I had been ticketed in. It wasnt the same cop that pulled me over that did the inspection so it didnt matter, plus it had been 3 or 4 weeks so he probably would not have remembered anyway.

ON the rx8 I would just pay the ticket and go on...probably still less trouble than getting tint stripped and redone lighter. Remember you usually have to pay labor to strip the old tint PLUS the standard charge for new tint, which usually comes out closer to 175-200.

owned. :lol: :lol:

[QUOTE

ON the rx8 I would just pay the ticket and go on...probably still less trouble than getting tint stripped and redone lighter. Remember you usually have to pay labor to strip the old tint PLUS the standard charge for new tint, which usually comes out closer to 175-200.[/QUOTE]

Ya man, I thought about doing that, but in NC it is a misdemeanor to just pay the ticket because you are disreguarding your citation for something that is against the law. Im young and I don't want any misdemeanors on my record...yet. haha.

Plus, the guy who does my tints for me is a good friend of mine. he's going to take the tint off for free and put it back on for 100. and trust me, he's the best in this area.

NC troopers are a bunch of asses!

I feel your pain man. I had a black probe back in the day with 35% all around. Tint was legal but I got pulled over for it 4 different times.

just get the tint redone and be finished with it. Illegal tint tickets are way too easy for a cop to write. It will happen again and again if you don't get it legal.

Idk about the law in NC, but in LA its easy. Illegal tint is a non-moving violation. Which means that you can not be pulled over just for tint. The cop has to have a reason to pull you over and then can go for illegal tint. But here most cop are so stupid that they dont even know the law. So if a cop pulls you over for tint happily take the ticket. Then go to court to appeal the ticket. Ask why you were pulled over. When they say for tint, proceed to p0wn them at there own game. Walk out of the court house back to your illegally tinted car and be on your marry way. I have gotten 2 tint tickets thrown out this way. :)

here they are *not supposed to*, but they do it anyway, and the court system backs them up. Well, such things actually do not go to court, they go to a classroom in the city center building where a "judge" sits at the teachers desk and calls people forward, and takes their money. IF they want to argue, they argue to a small extent until the judge tells them they are still guilty and then takes their money anyway.

They make a full windshield tint that is legal for cars now. It was developed for airplanes to further protect pilots and cool the cockpits. Once I decide Exactly what I want to do with the front of my car, I'll be getting it. I NEED it....I'm Scotch/Irish and blue eyed. 10 minutes on a beach and I'm toast, with or w/o sunscreen, and my eyes.....don't even get me started on that. My problem is my vision is too perfect...:icon_no2:

OP replace the tint with 35%....The court can't tell you that you cant have it..just how dark it is...and even 35% looks awesome on black..

...which will then have a ticket on it since it was parked. :lol:

you must live in a small town

nope they cant do that :lol:

or the State of California.

In all seriousness, most lower level judges either don't know the law or don't care. In traffic cases, there usually isn't a prosecutor and the judge sort of fills that role even though they shouldn't.

Nice link! My state says 70% sides and 50% on the rear.:lol:

Damn, Indiana is 30%. I thought all this time it was 35, thanks for the link.

Just remember, there is no guarantee on that site but it's probably accurate. You should probably still check with the states DMV to make sure. Google your state and DMV or vehicle equipment laws will work.

I wonder if I should do that

Get some used side window, and just swap it out whenever I get a ticket to drop the thing.

I already paid like almost 160 bux in total (2 tickets) might as well add a couple more hundred for the spare window. I would rather give my money to other people than those fat donut eating motherfuckers.

side windows you could do very easily in well under an hour, but the back window is permanent unlike an rx7 hatch, so if you get a ticket for the sides then it would also apply to the rear and the inspecting officer would see the rear and fail you on that basis.

medium/small, about 50k people or so, but one of the higher per capita police forces in this half of the country (I think at last count my local city/county had a total of like 82 officers). All of the other local jurisdictions conduct traffic court and small infractions in the same manner.