Questioned By Police For Playing Chess?

After getting in my car after leaving my mother's yesterday afternoon I was looking at my phone as I often do before driving away.  While looking at my phone I was looking at an ongoing correspondence game and suddenly got very tired as often happens to me when looking at a chess position.  

I then proceeded to doze off for about 15 minutes and had then been awake for about 10 minutes and as I was nearing a decision as to what move I was going to play there was a knock on my car window.  It was the local police responding to a call from a concerned (about the neighborhood) citizen that they saw someone sleeping in the driver's seat of a parked car and thought it could be indicative of local drug use activity.  

I explained to the officer that I had just left my mother's and got tired while looking at my phone and dozed off.  Even though he did not ask to see my phone he noticed it was open to a chess game and realized I was just playing chess and not using drugs.  So of course the officer then proceeded to wish me well and send me on my way but needless to say I will not be falling asleep there anymore!

Be thankful they didn't shoot you full of holes.

As he left he mumbled, no way a chess player can afford drugs.

Good thing I was not playing a Live game with a good position that I would have then lost on time.

They were of course only responding to a call from a concerned citizen-- could it have been your mother?

She lives in a large apartment building and would not have seen that I had not left.

Yeah, it was kind of annoying, being that I just dozed off and was looking at chess on my phone, but I do understand the citizen's concern.  And the officer was very nice so all was good!

I'm not saying the police are the greatest in the US, but someone passed out in a driver seat of a car definitely deserves a wellness check.  That is not a place people typically take naps. 

Definitely true.  It probably did not help that my car was running.  

I originally intended to leave fairly quickly but my head just got in a fog and I figured a quick nap would due the trick.  I just timed it wrong I guess.

Haven't seen such cases. Are such cases common in US? Or Do other countries also have similar laws? There's no restriction like this in India and other Asian countries if I am not wrong!

He didn't get in trouble, the police officer just investigated why OP was sleeping in a running car. 

 I think in every country if a police officer finds you asleep in the driver seat of a running car, they will question what you are doing.

That was an opportunity to make an audit video.

Here, they don't care actually for just sleeping in the car. But, they'll  investigate only if they find suspicious activity. 

Well if I had been mistreated maybe cell phone video or police body cam footage might have made quite the headlines but since this stop was basically routine unfortunately there was no drama.

The police probably did not care so much that I was sleeping but more as to why I was sleeping.  So probably similar to India.

It would’ve been a good example of how things should go.  (kidding by the way)

relatable. 

In UK you can sleep in your car but the cops will probably come up with some story to check you to make sure you aren't drunk and at the wheel of a car.

Post #2 is probably the most accurate----there have simply been too many incidents here in the U.S. of trigger-happy police shooting people for less reasons than even sleeping in one's car...

Both my grandfather and my uncle died at the wheel of a parked car, both from heart attacks before they started driving.  In my uncle's case, the car ran for about 2 hours before anyone stopped to see what was wrong.