Police who have encountered "sovereign citizens", what's your best story?

1. Prosecutor, not a cop, but I have seen a couple of these idiots in court. One guy insisted on representing himself despite the judge's constant pleas that he accept a public defender. He submitted documents to the court that were signed with his thumbprint IN HIS OWN BLOOD. Literally cannot make this up. During jury selection he would ask a question, and then spin around and look at the judge to see if she was going to shut him down (he repeatedly asked/said things you can't during jury selection). That whole trial was a trainwreck. He testified in his own defense and said he wasn't born in New York like his birth certificate said, but instead in "northwest Africa", so I at least gave him props for getting the direction right if we are including New York as part of Africa. He was on trial for a suspended license and weed, so this was all so much ado about nothing. He got convicted. The second one I saw started out way more reasonable. He did his own jury selection like the other guy, but was way more prepared and seemed like he'd been there before. I was actually pretty impressed for a while...until he testified. So since he was representing himself, he didn't have an attorney to ask him questions when he testified like usual. In these situations, typically the person just gives a monologue about their side of the story. Not this guy. He stood at the podium, asked a question, then walked to the witness stand, sat down, and answered it. Then he got up, went back to the podium, asked a question, rinse, lather, repeat. He seemed fairly normal if a little deluded until that happened, and then we realized he was full-on crazy, just better at hiding it. He also got convicted for a suspended license and having a concealed weapon (he carried a huge hunting knife on himself at all times).
   — Raistlin719


2. I am in the U.K. And have encountered some in my job in mortgages. I am in the complaints department. We regularly get letters from customers stating obtuse sailing laws from the 18th century, that mean that the uk loans system is illegal. Also, we get given a bit a of paper that states "This document is a bill of £xxxxx. You have to legally take this to clear my mortgage." Ah, no we don't. We get claims that without providing signed original paperwork (which we don't hold - it's all electronic), the mortgage is invalid. The list goes on. They call themselves "Bob of the family Smith". I just sigh when I see the letters now. Edit: I should add they say "Bill smith is my legal entity who signed the mortgage agreement. However, I am Bill of the family smith, who does not believe in the legality of uk financial sector, and therefore am not liable for this debt."
   — Marmitelovedmebetter


3. My uncle calls himself one. But it's kinda funny because he refuses to work, expects family and the US government to cough up money or housing whenever he gets tired of living under a bridge. And he's super into big government. He just doesn't want to pay the consequences of it. I think he's confused.
   — andromedamountains






4. Lawyer here. I once faced off against one in Court. He asked the Master of the Courts to override the Supreme Court of Canada. When the Master wouldn't do that our freeman tried to convince him to disbar me, saying that I'm "not really an attorney." This was quite funny because in Canada we don't call lawyers attorneys. He later filed an affidavit claiming that he was a former client of mine and thus I was acting in conflict of interest. Crazy.
   — asoiahats


5. Not a police officer or attorney, but I had a neighbor who was one of these. So, about 7 years ago, I moved to Chicago, and got a small apartment in a brownstone that had been converted into 3 apartments. My landlord was this nice elderly man who never gave me any problems. However, he warned me that the next door neighbor could be a bit batty, and to just ignore him if he tried to give me any trouble. I didn't think anything of it, at the time, but about a week after I moved in, some guy I don't know knocks at my door. He's wearing a weird military-esque uniform that I don't recognize, so i'm like "oh it's a weirdo" and don't answer the door. After a few minutes of more knocking, he pushes a fat manilla envelope through my mail slot, and leaves. Curiosity piqued, I go to check it out, and the whole packet is basically telling me I have moved into the Sovereign Nation of [redacted to prevent identifying this guy], and here's all the citizenship paperwork I need to fill out. I had no idea wtf this was about, so I asked my upstairs neighbor, who'd lived there for over a decade. Apparently, the guy next door and his wife had owned like, three houses on this street, and were renting them out. When they got divorced, his wife got the building we were living in, and she promptly sold it to my current landlord. The sovereign citizen guy got shafted in the divorce, and decided that the court didn't have the jurisdiction to give his property to someone else. He declared the three buildings to be their own sovereign nation and would try to break into them occasionally, which is why I had like 7 deadbolts on the door. (I just figured it was Chicago...) So I throw out the paperwork and laugh, and go about my business. About 2 weeks later, i start getting junk mail addressed to this guy, so I gather it up, take it over to his house, and drop it off. I tell him to change the address they've got, because I don't want to receive his mail. He informs me as the King of [nation] he is entitled to receive mail at any address in the country, and that my paperwork is a week overdue, so I need to pay the 150$ late fee immediately. I roll my eyes, and leave, go back to my apartment. Another week passes, and I'm off work & classes for a day, and the mailman comes by while I'm outside putting up halloween decorations. He asks how my dad is doing. This would be very kind except A) My father and I are not on speaking terms, and at that point hadn't spoken in 5 years, and B) My father big cities and would never have come within 100 miles of Chicago, even to visit me. So I ask the mailman WTF he's on about, and he says my dad has been chatting him up outside my apartment every day. It's creepy, I tell the mail carrier my father and I don't speak, and he doesn't know where I live, so it can't have been my father. The mailman shakes his head, thanks me for telling him, and gives me my mail. I'm creeped out, but don't immediately suspect crazy neighbor guy. A few weeks later, I receive two certified letters that I have to sign for. While I do so, I notice the crazy neighbor is standing on his porch, watching me. I mention it to the mailman (as i'm signing) and he informs me that that's the guy who was claiming to be my dad. I take the letters, go inside, lock my door, and open these certified letters. One of them is a bill from the Office of the Interior of [Nation] saying that my paperwork is a month late now, and I owe $1500 in late fees, and because they had to use "other methods" to obtain my information, I also owe a $500 "processing fee". The second envelope contains a shitty "passport" for [Nation] with my name as it appears on my mail, not as it appears on my driver's license (i go by my middle name), along with an "id card", both of which have a grainy picture of me obviously taken while I was on my way out of my apartment. I called the police, who came, took all the paperwork, and told me he does this to everybody, but they'd have a word with him. They told him he needs to leave me alone. I don't hear anything for another three months, until I get served. He's suing me in small claims court for $3000 to cover my "fees". I took off work and showed up and the judge laughed him out of there. I avoided him for the rest of my 1 year lease, and moved immediately to a different part of town.
   — -_-quiet-_-


6. I'm not police but I work in local government and we have a few of these people. One in particular routinely sends certified letters stating that the US constitution does not require her to be a part of the US and that local government can therefore not require her to pay taxes or anything. She routinely sends "subpoenas" for people to appear in her "court" to answer for violations of "things". The really creepy part is she also puts a thumbprint in blood as her signature.
   — ghost_finger






7. One of my friends considers himself a sovereign citizen. I usually zone out when he's explaining some old maritime law or whatever that makes him exempt from everything he doesn't like. Honestly, nothing's really different between him and my other friends except for the fact that he's got a rap sheet like three pages long full of simple trespassing and stuff because "you can't own land, man" or whatever the hell.
   — Yorushicookie


8. "License plate" was construction paper and crayon. Judge asked if he enjoyed the tax-payer funded roads.
   — BendrbendrBendr


9. I work drug interdiction on a major interstate in the southeast and deal with these delusional people much more often than I care to. One story in particular is a young man out of Tennessee that my partner stopped and I arrived to find him refusing to exit his car. My partner is much more patient than I and is trying to reason with the guy explaining that despite his ambitious arguments that we have no jurisdiction or authority over him, if he doesn't comply and produce identification that he will be arrested. He eventually agrees to step out of the car and I take him off the shoulder of the road and begin to talk with him as my partner starts running checks and doing his enforcement action. The guy didn't produce a license for my partner but did provide a name and d.o.b. That needed up being fictitious. The guy tells me that he is a foreign dignitary from the Israel international army is that he is not subject to our states jurisdiction and rattles off the typical sovereign b.s. He then pulls out a Israel national army identification card that is hilariously poor quality and starts describing his assigned duties and objectives as an operative for this fictional group of idiots. I notice that the card he has handed me is a little frayed on the edge and the lamination is loose so I gently lift up on the laminate and reveal that his I.D from this group is printed on computer paper and wrapped around an Ingles Advantage card. I have a good chuckle and we end up arresting the guy for obstruction for providing the false name as his vehicle is registered in his true name and our system pops up a nice big picture of the registered owner with their full info. With 10 years of law enforcement experience and countless interactions with these people I am still fascinated with their level of ignorance and stupidity.
   — bornintheUSA01






10. Oddly enough, this doesn't end terribly... I seem to be in a rare experience. In 2008 I worked a 1 year contract at my-then-local towns police detachment as an admitting guard (civilian, mostly paperwork) for the jail cells. 95% of the time is drunks to sleep it off. When I was on shift and the cells were empty (small town), I made an effort to clean them, hose them down, use proper cleaning chemicals and set up a mat or two for the next occupants. Around the fall the officers brought in a highway arrest.... I can hear the radio chatter from my office and was familiar with the codes by then. The guy was driving an unregistered vehicle, no insurance, no licence, multiple warrants out for similar offences, obstruction of justice, petty crimes, bunch of other minor-moderate things as well as a warning tag that the subject was known for aggression against police. They bring the guy in, he's somewhat uncooperative, but far from the worst I have seen, he placed in one of my freshly cleaned cells, where he promptly sits down. He later requests, politely, a magazine to read, which I provide an older National Geographic. Within a few hours the paperwork is processed, he has read the book, and is fully cooperative... I suspect nothing at this point. The officers draw up the release papers, a promise to appear, which of course we already have an inkling is not going to be followed through on. I prepare the release notes, and then the guy says this to me: "I'm a freeman of the land, we don't believe in government. Normally when these guy (nods to the officers) take me away I make a point of causing as much noise, banging and disrupting as much as I can. I didn't do that today... because you gave me a clean cell. You showed me an ounce of respect, so I have to show it back by being cooperative and now I'm out of here in record time. Thank you. " At the time I had never encountered that before. I was floored. The officers were speechless for a moment. I'll never know what was going through that guys head, and I still can't quite make sense of it, especially as I read all of the disaster stories on this thread about encounters with these people.
    — 7_up_curly