Skip to main content

Speeding birds

Police in Germany were amused when they discovered the culprit in a series of mysterious speeding offences in a north German town. The town’s speed cameras had been triggered, but no cars were visible in the photos. However the mystery was solved when a parakeet was photographed clearly in one image, flying across the front of a speed camera and triggering the device. The bird is one of several that have nested in the town’s main park and police are aware that it is likely to be a repeat offender, although
July 11, 2016 Read time: 1 min
Police in Germany were amused when they discovered the culprit in a series of mysterious  speeding offences in a north German town. The town’s speed cameras had been triggered, but no cars were visible in the photos. However the mystery was solved when a parakeet was photographed clearly in one image, flying across the front of a speed camera and triggering the device. The bird is one of several that have nested in the town’s main park and police are aware that it is likely to be a repeat offender, although they do not plan to press charges.

Related Content

  • Map Reading Skills
    April 23, 2013
    In Belgium a pensioner planning to drive 61km to a train station to pick up a friend made a somewhat longer journey than expected. The woman followed the advice of her satellite navigation system, which directed her through six countries in all and she ended up in Zagreb in Croatia, 1,440km from her original starting point. Despite seeing road signs in dierent languages, having to stop to refuel on a number of occasions and even parking in a roadside rest-stop for a sleep in her car, the woma
  • Contraflow with Mike Woof
    August 2, 2012
    ‘Before I get down to this month’s main agenda, I’d like to draw your attention to a range of improvements that we’ve made to the content of World Highways. In conjunction with a fresher look, we have introduced features both long and short: At the ‘long’ end of the scale in our World Report…this month the subject is Australian roads…and at the ‘short’ end of the scale is the five-minute interview with an industry personality. Our equipment features have been beefed up with more analysis, and the signpostin
  • New system to detect phone use
    May 9, 2016
    A new system dubbed the Textalyser could reveal if drivers in the US state of New York were using a phone at time of a collision. The device has been developed to allow police to analyse whether drivers were using a mobile phone at the time of a crash. The device checks the metadata on a phone to see if it was used recently. This method ensures that messages, contacts, photos, and so on are kept private. New York City is proposing that police use these devices to catch drivers who are distracted by thei
  • Cat transport
    June 5, 2015
    Bystanders in an Ohio town were somewhat perplexed at the sight of a car being driven along the road with a cat tied securely on top of the bonnet (hood). On hearing reports of this occurrence from a series of worried locals, police responded rapidly in a bid to track the offending driver, an elderly woman. However the trail had already grown cold and the cat carrying car had disappeared from the roadway, leaving both police and residents somewhat mystified over the incident. A local animal charity commente