Aydin Orstan makes an excellent point about collecting gear resembling drug
paraphernalia.
 
One night, I was driving on the interstate highway while struggling to
close a jacket zipper. The zipper was uncooperative, and I wove the truck a
bit. Then I noticed that a car was tailgating me (American slang for
"following very closely"). Irritated, I slowed down, hoping that the
tailgater would use the unoccupied left lane to pass me. Instead, he slowed
down to match my speed. I slowed down some more, with the same result. When
I slowed down even more, the tailgater burst into flashing blue light. It
was a police car, and the two policemen inside were suspicious that my
driving habits indicated that I was on drugs. They were even more
suspicious when they saw packages of plastic bags, which drug dealers
commonly use for their wares. The fact that some of the bags contained
fossils did not impress them at first, but after I pointed out the geologic
hammer, the coffee mug emblazoned "Geological Society of Alabama, 25th
Anniversary", and my identification card as an employee of the Geological
Survey of Alabama, they let me go without further delay.
 
What we have to go through to collect shells in a crazy world!
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA