Skip to main content

Hunger pangs

From the UK comes a curious tale about a bus passenger with an unusual appetite. Police in Paignton in Devon have been seeking the whereabouts of a young male who began eating a leather seat in the bus in which he was travelling. The man caused some £200 worth of damage to the seat, biting chunks from the covering and using a fizzy drink with which to wash down the perhaps unpalatable leather. Despite releasing CCTV footage of the incident, police have been unable to locate the man who is descibed as being
November 28, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
From the UK comes a curious tale about a bus passenger with an unusual appetite. Police in Paignton in Devon have been seeking the whereabouts of a young male who began eating a leather seat in the bus in which he was travelling. The man caused some £200 worth of damage to the seat, biting chunks from the covering and using a fizzy drink with which to wash down the perhaps unpalatable leather. Despite releasing CCTV footage of the incident, police have been unable to locate the man who is descibed as being of average height and stocky build. The bus firm’s own conditions of carriage state passengers should refrain from, “eating and drinking items which make the environment unpleasant for other customers or otherwise cause offence.” And this also applies to passengers eating parts of the bus itself. Although he only ate a small portion of the material the firm said that it was not practical to patch the hole and instead had to fit a new cover to the seat. It is not clear if the young man was intoxicated or simply bored when he committed the offence but the leather is not likely to have been easy to digest and this is not a recommended diet.

Related Content

  • Alcohol consumption car crash cause
    December 15, 2014
    A new report from insurance firm Allianz highlights the appalling risks to road users resulting from drink driving. "On a global level, every 10th fatal accident can be traced back to alcohol. Men are more likely to expose themselves to this danger, risking their lives with it," according to Christoph Lauterwasser, Head of the Allianz Center for Technology (AZT) in Munich. The fatality rates from road traffic crashes that have resulted from alcohol use have been investigated by the World Health Organisatio
  • Rebuilding a historic bridge linking the US and Canada
    March 8, 2016
    While many road authorities in North America are finding it difficult to stretch their bridge assets beyond half a century, one bridge is closing in on its centenary - David Arminas reports The international Peace Bridge, connecting the Canadian province of Ontario with the US state of New York, is 88 years young this year, and still going strong.
  • Insults at the wheel
    December 18, 2017
    Insults at the A British pensioner was recently involved in an unusual incident when trundling his mobility scooter down the middle of a busy road. The driver of a vehicle wishing to overtake was unable to do so safely at first and when he remonstrated with the pensioner, was given a rude gesture and a string of insults in return. The incident was captured on the driver’s dashcam device and it appeared that the pensioner was extremely drunk at the time. Meanwhile young horse riders were the target of a
  • Futureproofing UK construction equipment resilience
    May 5, 2021
    Rob Oliver is the longstanding CEO of the Construction Equipment Association (CEA), the UK trade association for the UK construction equipment industry. Guy Woodford recently caught up with him to discuss the industry’s health and the key issues facing the CEA and its members in 2021 and beyond.