I've never seen a mock police car in my life.
Now I want to find one! :thumb:
The first one I ever encountered was in Amidon, North Dakota, set up to look like a speed trap. We were going through on Highway 85 around 4:00am on the way to visit the state highpoint (White Butte), and were surprised to see a speed trap in this dinky town, especially at that time of day. My wife thought something looked funny about it, so we checked it out on our way back. I’ve watched for them ever since. Apparently, the Amidon car is quite famous, and people have been known to break in and dress up or do other things to the mannequin inside. :madgrin:
Seems to be quite a few of them in the mountain towns around here. Some are obviously fake, such as the one in Rand. The one in Twin Lakes is fairly convincing, though, and I’m sure it fakes out the tourists as well as some locals. It’s an old county patrol car, and it has the official badging along with a mannequin inside. Sometimes, the mannequin gets moved to the passenger seat. On closer inspection, the giveaways are peeling paint that looks like it’s been touched up with Rust-Oleum and 2004 license plate tags.
I’ve heard that Montezuma has one now too, but that it’s quality is about the same as the one in Rand. Montezuma's a strange place anyway.
Then there's an old patrol car in Empire, CO that I’d come to think was a phony. Empire used to be a notorious speed trap, but in recent years, the (aging) patrol car always seemed to be parked, unoccupied, in the same spot along the highway. Figured they could no longer afford their police force and just parked the patrol car, so I started to ignore it. Not too long ago, however, I was going through town and it had someone pulled over. :lookout: So, I guess you never know for sure.