A few years ago, I was driving home from Florida with my father. My mother, wife and kids had flown home because of pressing schedules, so I offered to drive home with my dad (I had the flexibility to do that in those days). I was pulled over by a state trooper in West Virginia for driving somewhere around 80 mph in what I thought was a 70-mph zone, but was a 60. It's a curvy, mountainous area. The officer approached on the right to protect himself from traffic. My father started mouthing off to the officer; I elbowed him in the side to get him to shut up. After the officer took my licence, registration and insurance to his car, I told my father NEVER to act that way with a police officer. When I saw the officer returning a few minutes later with a yellow piece of paper, I knew I was receiving a ticket.
Instead, the officer came back to my father's window and said something along the lines of "I know you're anxious to get home and you're used to looking at the big white numbers on your speedometer, not the little blue ones. I'm giving you a warning [in WV, warnings are done on the same form as tickets, so they're in the system]. The next 20 miles or so are really twisty; that's why the limit is only 60 through here. Just try to keep close to that and you'll be fine." I smiled and thanked the officer.
I'm sure if my father hadn't been in the car with me, I would have received a ticket, even though I was polite with the officer. It was obvious I was driving him home from a vacation or winter stay in a warmer place and wasn't just a guy in his early 50's driving through the middle of nowhere. Then again, the fact I was polite and contrite helped either way. The irony is we had switched drivers only about fifteen minutes earlier after filling the car.