Sabrina Markes - My home in cyberspace

Getting Stopped By The "Police"...

If I am right, every crossdresser's fear, when out and driving, is to be stopped by the police!

Always wanting to get out and experience the fresh air while dressed, one of the things I really like to do is to go for long drives. It has always given me some feeling of freedom, yet also gives me the security blanket of being inside my private space, a comfort zone.

One night I was dressed and out for an evening drive. I was wearing a leather mini skirt, a red blouse, spiked heels and full makeup. I went for a drive I the country and on the way back to the city, I took a shortcut on a gravel road, then spotted a police car turning toward me. My heart began to race as and I got really scared as they passed my car. Then, my heart literally stopped when they turned around and pulled up behind me. I wanted so much to be anywhere else at that moment. The male and female officers walked up to my window and it was the male who did the talking. He asked where I was and where I was going. I gave him my papers and told him in my male voice that I was just out for a drive. He just glanced at the papers without taking them to his car. The female officer with him was doing all she could not to break out with laughter. The male officer gave me back my papers and apologized for stopping me and told me to have a good evening and returned to their car and left. He never asked why I was dressed as I was. After that, I drove straight home and changed. It was a really long time before I dressed again, and longer yet before I did any more driving while dressed.

I don't think it was so much that I had been stopped, but that the female officer had been laughing about it the whole time she stood there. To be quite honest, I think I looked better that she did, so maybe I should have been the one laughing! Now that I reflect on the incident, the male officer was very professional about the whole thing. And I believe that if it had been him only that approached my vehicle, I would have dealt with the aftermath a whole lot different.

Last fall, I had my second contact with the police. I was on a trip to Thunder Bay, and because I love to travel en fem, I was dressed for the trip. I was wearing a short black skirt, a tight wine colored top, pumps and black tights. I was wearing my new wig and was fully made up. An outfit you would commonly see in any office building. After I passed Kenora in a winding and hilly part of the highway, I came around a curve and right in front of me was a police car across the road, and the officer standing in the middle of the road. This time I felt an unusual calmness about me. I stopped by the officer, rolled down my window and was told of an accident on the highway. He directed me to the detour a short distance away. There I was, about three feet from the guy and not one strange glance, stare,etc. Nothing! I can't be sure if he really thought I was a pretty girl or if he figured it out. I will say that to not have the officer react to me was a real confidence builder and the rest of my trip was very pleasurable.

After that second incident, being face to face with a police officer, I felt like I passed some sort of test, and since then have felt as at ease when travelling as I do when in guy-mode. Guy-mode is just not as fun :-)

Then, during an evening out with Diane from BC on August 19, 2004, on the way back to Diane's hotel we just had to get some pics of us with her Cadillac! So we stopped in the CIBC parking lot at Emrpess Street and Ellice Avenue under a bright light, perfect for our shots! While we were standing there planning our pics, we spotted a Winnipeg Police cruiser pass by, then come back a moment later and enter the parking lot! It was the K-9 Unit and the officer stopped by where we were parked and when he saw us bothe standing there holding our cameras he commented "Oh, you are doing a modeling shoot."! I replied that we had just stopped to take some pictures and he simply smiled, said "OK" and he was on his way! That was so sweet...He thought we were "Damsels in Distress!

We do live and learn. Five years ago if I had seen a police car when I was out and about on one of my late evening drives it would have scared the heck out of me, fearing the worst! Like whe I first got stopped by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Yet now I have a much better understanding of myself and know that I am just "Being who I am" and that it really is "OK" to dress as I do. Plus, when it comes to the "police", having Sargent Ron Johannson of the Winnipeg Police Service come out to talk to our Masquerade group and confrim for everyone that we are doing nothing wrong, that sure helped put everyone's mind at ease.