tinyurl.com/qvwfxw (links to www.walesonline.co.uk)
A FERRARI driver thought he?d seen it all when he was pulled over by a high-ranking policeman ? for going too slowly!
Denis Evans, of Southerndown, was at the wheel of his wife?s £150,000 red sports car at 7.45am when he was stopped by Assistant Chief Constable Nick Croft.
Mr Evans was doing a leisurely 25mph near the Pelican pub in Ogmore-by-Sea ? a 40mph zone ? when he saw the unmarked Audi saloon behind him with flashing blue lights.
|
|
You cant win, whats next, minimum speed limits and low speed cameras? Could be a nice little earner in heavy traffic.
Edited by Old Navy on 16/05/2009 at 14:49
|
|
|
?It was a purely random check. The officer radioed in to check the documentation and explained to the driver he was concerned the car had been stolen.
?The officer wanted to check he was in a fit state. It?s a valuable car worth upwards of £150,000. Had it been stolen? Were the keys taken in a burglary? To a police officer, it raised questions.?
So are they going to stop every "valuable" car?
I'd take a bet that Mr. Croft wouldn'tve stopped an expensive range rover, for instance.
What are those valves found in lavatory cisterns?
|
You have gone out for an early morning blast in your Ferrari. You are tooling along warming up the engine and gearbox oil before tickling all the prancing horses, soothing the sleeping suburbs with the mellow croon of your exhaust. A high-ranking plod wants to admire your car and make sure you are all right, and gives you a blip of his blues.
What's to complain about?
|
The owner of the car would have been the first to complain if a passing officer hadn't taken an interest in an unusual vehicle at a time or place not expected, and it had been nicked a few hours earlier...the owner lying tied up and gagged in their home.
I was pulled and checked by a couple of traffic lads when going home from night shift in the wee small hours, i was in my Landcruiser and not far from a notorious itinerant camp....notorious for nicked 4x4's that is plus other stuff.
The officers only wanted to know it was my car, i gave them the correct name and address, they didn't give me a producer and they sent me on my way with a cheeful demeanour...seemed like proper coppering to me.
|
|
|
I think that's probably about right. Nice to see that the near obsessive interest of the police in cars and car crime goes all the way up.
The spokeswoman said:
"His first thought was ? what if it was stolen?
?You can?t see clearly who is driving as the back window is very high, so he pulled alongside and tried to see if the person could be under the influence of drink or drugs......
It was a purely random check.........he was concerned the car had been stolen.
?The officer wanted to check he was in a fit state. It?s a valuable car worth upwards of £150,000. Had it been stolen? Were the keys taken in a burglary?"
Since the enthusiastic ACC is responsible for media relations, he might want want a word with his spokeswoman who doesn't seem to know what "random" actually means.
btw, gordon, where do you expect to see a Ferrari apart from on a Spanish motorway?
Edited by Optimist on 16/05/2009 at 16:20
|
where do you expect to see a Ferrari apart from on a Spanishmotorway?
Thats why the officer concerned here was interested, most unusual to see a car like that so early in the morning... those who could afford such toys wouldn't normally be out of bed at such an hour..
As rare a sight as a farmer on a bike.
..;) ducks for cover
|
|
|
|
As usual, the plods can never win, damned if they do or dont.
|
|
|
where do you expect to see a Ferrari apart from on a Spanish motorway?
The things are everywhere. What a sheltered life you must lead Optimist.
|
Lud. I'm disappointed.
I'd have thought if anyone could spot a spot of irony and a knowing reference to a previous thread, you could.
Gordon seemed to feel that the ACC had pulled the Ferrari over because they were a bit thin on the ground in that part of Wales at that time of day and therefore unexpected. I was wondering where he would expect to see a Ferrari.
Those of us paying close (ie too much) attention to this site will recall the thread the other day
about the bloke nicked for doing 168mph in his Ferrari on a Spanish motorway. Now that's what I call a reason to pull someone over.
Having said all of that, I suppose I do lead a sheltered life.
|
I suppose I do lead a sheltered life.
I imagine most of us do in reality Optimist...
There really do seem to be a lot of Ferraris about though. A surprising number.
|
|
I thought this was a story about Kimi Räikkönen before I opened the thread....doh
|
IF I were driving a 150 grand car, I would expect a routine check by no lesser rank than the ACC! :-) Many years ago as a student in a midlands city I remember the police clamping down at opposite ends of the scale on both speeders and kerb crawlers in certain parts of the city - it was a real challenge to get the speed dead right in those pre-cruise control days.
The CC himself headed a very high profile against drunk drivers and had the dubious disctinction of catching the county council leader over the limit one night after a long session at county hall.
Edited by Bilboman on 16/05/2009 at 20:52
|
|
|
|
There really do seem to be a lot of Ferraris about though. A surprising number.
Over 40 at Dunsfold (the Top Gear track) today giving passenger rides in aid of charity, included three F40s and plenty of other rarities.
|
"It was a purely random check.........he was concerned the car had been stolen."
It can't have been both a random check and a specific one to see if this particular expensive car had been stolen.
"Random" means any car stood an equal chance of being stopped.
Similarly a breath test isn't "random" if they look for specific signs such as erratic driving, pub closing times, etc.
|
This all seems perfectly reasonable to me.
I've always thought that slow mimsing drivers cause far more accidents than speeders ever do, due to the frustration and road-rage they cause.
So really they should be stopping more of the morons who won't make a decent stab at keeping close to the speed limit where safe.
Problem is plod only ever goes for the posh cars. Why not stop all the millions of Nissan Micras, Rover 25s and (increasingly for some strange reason) Audi A3s that slow everyone else down?
|
|
|
|
Cliff must be correct, because "random" breath testing isn't allowed!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
