Tricked by a cop, became a fool and got searched

got pulled over by this chubby overweight cop probably in his 50s, and he tells me my tags are expired. At first, I didn’t think much of it, seemed like a normal traffic stop. Then things got weird. He asks if he can search my car, and I say no, I’m not giving consent. But instead of letting it go, he starts asking for my paperwork to “verify” everything. I hand it over, then he tells me to step out of the car. At this point, I’m just calm and thinking, “Okay, no big deal,” but then it starts to feel like he’s dragging things out.

Next thing I know, he starts interrogating me—asking all these questions about where I’m going, what I’m doing, and just weird stuff that doesn’t really make sense. I’m still chill, thinking it’s just standard questioning. But then, out of nowhere, he says, “I’m gonna have to cuff you while I verify everything alright kid? I’m thinking, “What the hell?” but I don’t argue because I didn’t know what to do. He cuffs me, tells me he’ll let me go if everything checks out, so I just go along with it.

Then comes the weirdest part. He tells me to sit down on the curb and “relax and loosen up for him” He says it’ll help me stay calm and “keep breathing deeply.” I’m just sitting there like, “Okay, whatever,” but I can tell he’s trying to control the whole situation now. I’m in handcuffs, on the curb, feeling kind of vulnerable, and that’s when he starts telling me to “cross my legs up and sit tight”—like, full-on directing me on how to sit. I don’t know why, but in that moment, I actually did it naively. He said it would help me stay nicely relaxed and then repeated mentioning to keep breathing deeply to calm myself down. I’m thinking maybe he’s just trying to make me feel less nervous, but I was already calm so what’s really going on now?

He then squats beside me and continues asking more questions. Right after that, he asks me for more paperwork, and I say it’s in the glove box. I try to stand up to get it, and that’s when he smiles, pats my cheeks and tells me to “keep relaxing for him with deep breaths and continue being seated on the curb with my legs crossed tightly and not move” and that he’ll go get it for me since I’m in cuffs so will have a hard time getting it. I do as he has instructed me and remain seated looking up at him as he takes my keys from my pocket, still with that calm, controlling tone, and walks to my car. Then, he asks me the question that really got me: “Before I search your car kid, do you have anything in there you shouldn’t have?” I’m like, “No sir, nothing like that.” And he’s like,“Perfect! That’s Lovely, thanks for confirming. This will be real quick.”

That’s when it slowly hit me—I had been so caught up in following his instructions, I totally let my guard down. I’d been tricked into waiving my rights, thinking I was just cooperating. I had no idea how smoothly he’d manipulated me into a position where I was basically consenting to a search without even realizing it. That whole “relax and breathe deeply” bit was just his way of disarming me, making me feel compliant and obedient while he quietly took control of the situation.

He of course didn’t find anything. The search yielded nothing and magically the tags on my vehicle came back valid after they were done going through everything. He let me go, but I was made a big fool by that officer that day