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

  • Safety gains on Europe’s roads with lower KSI rates
    February 19, 2014
    Better road safety is helping to cut KSI rates right across the EC - Mike Woof writes Road safety continues to improve in Europe, with official statistics for 2012 showing a drop in fatalities of 2,661 compared with the figures for 2011. The latest data from Pan-European police body TISPOL shows an encouraging trend towards better road safety. This highlights safety improvements right across the EU. In 2012, a total of 27,700 people were killed in road crashes in the European Union’s 27 member states, eq
  • Roadside checks in Europe target drink drivers
    January 21, 2014
    Action across Europe has seen police crackdown heavily on drink driving offences during December 2013. Information from the Pan-European police body TISPOL shows that 1,141,058 roadside breath tests were carried out to check for alcohol use, with 15,305 showing positive. Police also checked drivers for drugs in the operation, and 2,133 offences were detected. The operation was organised by TISPOL in 31 European countries. TISPOL president Koen Ricour said, “These results show that too many people are still
  • Skidmarks
    December 15, 2017
    Our Skidmarks page is highly rated by readers. Your input could help make this page even more entertaining. If you come across any amusing road-related stories or pictures email me at [email protected]
  • ‘eCall’ app for Android platform launched for worldwide use
    April 23, 2012
    Alfom, a German IT company, has announced the TripGuard app (www.tripguard.de) for Android (which will shortly also be available for the iPhone) that provides an eCall service in case of emergency. The inventor of the system was driven to develop the software following the tragic death of his mother in the autumn of 2010. Late one night, her car left the road, overturned and was not visible to passing motorists. Seriously injured but still conscious, it was nearly two hours before she was discovered and rel