Please tell me Nadi rode in the sidecar and there is photographic evidence.
Even though I have a tuk-tuk and a motorbike, and back in the states I restored, repaired and tuned classic Vespas and Lambrettas, I have never owned a sidecar and it's still a life goal. I've been spying a very skilled aluminum sidecar guy in Thailand on Facebook, and one day when I strike it rich I hope to design a sidecar camper and have it built.
I have never once felt nervous around Khmer cops, but I've always felt uneasy around Thai police and military. They always have their shirts tucked in, wearing boots laced tight instead of flip-flops, and there was always a feeling that these guys take their jobs seriously and won't risk it all for $20 like many would here. From the stories I've heard too it sounds like hit and miss there with the cops, and in your case sounds like a best case scenario.
Sadly I never allowed Nadi to ride in the sidecar, she has the street smarts of a deer in the headlights and this problem unfortunately exists to this day where she seems to want to get hit by cars and will even pull on the leash to put us into traffic. A few times she fell off my motorbike that had a foot area because I don't think she understands what fast movement really entails. Therefore she was forever banned from riding in a position where it was even possible for her to exit. This is very strange to me because in every other aspect of life she is actually extremely smart.
Without these restrictions she would have been turned into a street pancake many years ago.
Poor Nadi, she's missing out. I had a Lhasa Apso when I was a kid and she was very smart in some very specific circumstances. She was never able to stop attacking the mailman even when my stepbrother shot her with a bb gun, not that I condone that, but it was the 80s.