Skip to main content

Cause for offence

A British woman called the police to report that her scarecrow had been stolen, only to discover that the scarecrow had in fact been taken into custody by the police. The offending scarecrow had been placed outside a village dressed in a high visibility jacket and a police uniform, to highlight a scarecrow festival in the village.
March 1, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
A British woman called the police to report that her scarecrow had been stolen, only to discover that the scarecrow had in fact been taken into custody by the police. The offending scarecrow had been placed outside a village dressed in a high visibility jacket and a police uniform, to highlight a scarecrow festival in the village. The local police had been informed that this would take place and had given their approval. However when police drove past they spotted that the scarecrow also sported a fake radar detector made of cardboard. Realising that the fake cardboard radar gun posed a safety potential hazard and could have caused passing drivers to become alarmed, the police rushed the offending scarecrow into a police vehicle and took it to the local police station. A spokesperson explained that impersonating a police officer is an offence and added that the scarecrow sent an inappropriate message to motorists. The scarecrow maker commented that the fake radar gun was actually intended to encourage motorists to slow down.

Related Content

  • Ticket direction
    August 14, 2014
    A thief was arrested after police realised the parking tickets left on the car provided clues to where it had been left. The man had used the stolen car as a getaway vehicle, escaping along a busy highway by driving in the wrong direction and then abandoning it. However police investigating the crime quickly spotted the pile of parking tickets the vehicle had collected, which showed exactly where it had been left, in a space reserved for residents outside the thief’s home. Crosschecks on the address showed
  • Western Sydney Airport Bulk Earthworks
    November 7, 2023
    The massive Bulk Earthworks project, under development by the federal government-owned Western Sydney Airport (WSA), entails construction of an international airport on the western side of Sydney, Australia.
  • Eight lives left
    February 19, 2014
    A van driver using a busy motorway in the UK was surprised when several other motorists flashed their headlights at her. She soon discovered however that there was reason for their behaviour as the other drivers had spotted a cat clinging to the roof of her vehicle.
  • Working towards safer India mobility...
    July 18, 2012
    Sibylle Rupprecht, IRF-GPC Director General, looks towards sound mobility management at the 3rd Regional Conference of the International Road Federation 3rd-4th October 2008 in New Delhi, India More than 1.2 million deaths and 23 million injuries are caused by road accidents worldwide every year. Of these, India accounts for 10% of fatal accidents. These alarming figures were disclosed by the speakers at the 3rd Regional IRF Conference on 'Mobility and Safety in Road Transport' to some 250 engineers and exp