Following the Grandpa Memorial we decided to take a trip to Gardnerville, Nevada to visit friends of Cynthia via Lake Tahoe. The real story was on the drive home Monday on our way to the Cal Neva Lodge for breakfast at State Line. As we were driving thru Zephyr Cove, Nevada, the Douglas County Sheriff was doing a little fishing and caught a large Barracuda a.k.a. ‘me’.

After being pulled over, Officer Dave Brown approached the ‘fish’. I was thinking the officer would want to see license and registration, so I got it ready. However, instead the officer said "open your hood'! I thought I had heard the officer wrong and said ‘what did you say?’ The officer said "open your hood or I'm giving you a ticket.”

So, I proceeded to open the hood immediately. After I did, the officer said, “I should plant drugs on this vehicle and impound it.” Then he burst into laughter. He then told me he was a Mopar nut and had over 10 Mopars and was going to stop me even if I wasn't speeding....(I was going 65 in a 45 m.p.h. area).

He then looked the car over up and down and said “Nice Car!” He then told me he had a website called www.smithvalleymopars.com. He has a 1971 Cuda drag car that is painted to resemble a Douglas County police car. He is also nicknamed "Law Fish" at the race track where he serves ‘Mopar justice’ as he put it.

All and all it was a pleasant experience after the fact and I ended up giving him an application to our car show in September. I guess you could call it "fish was caught and released back into the wild".

Barracuda (Ralph) Beard

[TOP]