*cough cough*

Coming up with excuses to get yourself out of either a ticket or an arrest is a tradition going back, probably, to the first time that someone found themselves either under arrest, or about to receive a ticket. Over the years, people have tried to get more and more inventive with their excuses, as law enforcement has been better at sniffing out the lies and deception.

Of course, when you something gets declared a pandemic right around the time of your own potential arrest, you've got a tailor-made excuse ready and waiting. At least, that's what people in Connecticut thought when they tried to claim that they were being quarantined for swine flu when the cops showed up at their door.

Don't think for a moment that it worked. True, it gave the arrestee some extra precious time to be free, but eventually the police mobilized, got some respiratory masks, and went into the house anyways. They proceeded to take their suspect out, load them into an ambulance, and deliver them to a hospital, just so the whole excuse could be put to the test.

This is why, if you are going to come up with an excuse along these lines, you really need to go all out. Don't just make up a claim that might allow you to avoid legal trouble. Make sure that your claim is fool-proof, and that there's no way the police could be upset with you for stretching the truth. In other words, be committed to your story.

And, darn it, if that means you need to get sick, you go out and get sick. Otherwise you'll probably just look foolish.