pack rats of the highway

 pack rats of the highway

fiction

edward w pritchard

Driving at night I will often see a few bustling  highway patrol officers steathily searching an abandoned vehicle on the berm of the highway looking for evidence of poverty and misfortune in the missing car drivers mis- spent life. It's beyond sad and a slap in the face to the writers of our bill of rights and various judicial case histories.  Stare decisis' undoing occurring at night on a dark forgotten highway without a warrant. 

Why not have a number that the highway patrol officers must call before they start their search to state what they are looking for and why. Statistics  could be kept of the results and the type of vehicles chosen to  be searched. 

Sometimes an abandoned vehicle is just a problem with the battery and not a plot  for transporting drugs illegal aliens or weapons of mass destruction.