APPARENTLY TENNESSEE COPS ARE NOT TOO BRIGHT

Tennessee cops don't seem to know that they must have probable cause to stop a vehicle suspected of transporting drugs ..... and a ‘marijuana leaf’ bumper sticker does not constitute probable cause.

PLANO COUPLE SAYS POLICE CONFUSED COLLEGE DECAL FOR DRUG SYMBOL
Elderly couple is frustrated after a Tennessee State Trooper questioned them about an Ohio State bumper sticker on their car

By Catherine Ross

NBCDFW.com
February 18, 2013

A Plano couple says they were wrongly pulled over in Tennessee, after state troopers mistook their Ohio State bumper sticker for a marijuana leaf.

“I’ve had this sticker on the back of my car for three years and have never had trouble from police,” said Bonnie Jonas-Boggioni, a 65-year-old retired nurse and grandmother.

“The more I thought about it, the angrier I got because, how could they be so stupid?”

Jonas-Boggioni and her husband Guido Boggioni were driving outside of Memphis, heading home to Texas from Boggioni’s mother’s funeral in Ohio, when they were pulled over by a state trooper.

“At first I thought, what in the world is going on? Why is he stopping us?” said Boggioni, who was riding in the passenger seat while his wife was driving the car.

Jonas-Boggioni said soon, another vehicle, containing a local county sheriff’s deputy, also joined the traffic stop.

Jonas-Boggioni was asked to step outside of the vehicle and said she was shocked by the trooper’s next sentence.

“He said, what are you doing with a marijuana sticker on the back of your car? And I turned around and I looked at it and said – that’s a Buckeye sticker.”

The Buckeye sticker, which fans most commonly recognize from football player’s helmets, a token of sorts for making a big play during a game, bears a green plant with five leaves.

The trooper told the couple that another officer outside of the jurisdiction had seen the Boggioni’s car and called in a tip, believing that the pair could be part of a marijuana smuggling ring.

After clearing up the misunderstanding, he left the two with some parting advice – to part with the sticker.

It’s something that still doesn’t sit well with the couple.

“I wouldn’t take my sticker off the truck for nothing,” said Guido Boggioni.

Instead, Jonas-Boggioni has added another bumper decal of a Buckeye helmet bearing the in-question stickers.

She hopes the new addition will help educate fans from outside the Big 10 and prevent a situation like this from happening again.