Radar, What Radar?
Revenge is sweet. Granted, the probability in Spain of being sentenced to eight months in prison for flipping the bird at a patrol doing speed control with a radar is not high, (that happend in Yorkshire, England) still, many have been burned by those little cameras. Some have been burned enough that they plot their downfall, one way or another.
Some years ago, a truck plowed into a fixed radar near Gijón, and left it moribund by the road. Someone else came along and saw an opportunity. He picked it up and took it to the nearest junkyard, where he sold it by the kilo. The junkyard owner, however, decided to turn over the cadaver, and the opportunist was arrested and charged with stealing public property.
In Navarra this past January, another pair of opportunists, saw an abandoned tripod by some garbage containers. It looked like it had been left for the trash, and that it hadn't fit into any of the containers. They looked it over, picked it up, and started to take it to their pickup truck, where other junk destined for the junkyard was sitting. Not so fast. The Tráfico patrolmen who had put the mobile radar in an appropriate place to catch speedsters moved quickly to avoid their camera being taken to the crusher. They caught it in time. Nothing happened to the opportunists because they had honestly thought it had been abandoned. Um, we'll leave it at that.
Others have been more specific, and taken the copper wiring of some fixed radars in the province of Valencia. That's what some foreign copper thieves did almost ten years ago, when the price of copper was through the roof, and any and all kinds of electric installations ran the risk of being dismantled for private profit.
One of the strangest, weirdest thefts of a mobile radar apparently happened on the road between Mérida and Sevilla. Over ten years ago, a couple of friends went to the Ikea near Sevilla, and on the way back, saw an abandoned barbecue similar to one they had seen in the store. They stopped, saw that no one was around, and decided to take it home. It seemed to have been abandoned, yet looked quite new. It was just like an Ikea product; streamlined, and of a completely modern conception. So, they folded it, put it in the trunk and set off back home.
As they continued on their drive home, they heard sirens behind them and pulled over. The Tráfico officer walked up to them and asked them about the barbecue they had found. They explained about their trip, that they were on their way back to Mérida and had found the barbecue abandoned. The officer asked, "What, there are no mobile radars in Mérida.?" Yeah, in this day and age, two women who had never seen an image of a mobile radar. That is a rarity worth contemplating. As the officers walked away with their rescued contraption, one of them asked the other, "Okay, let's see where we can set up this barbecue now."
And then, there's the person who, in the comfort of their own home, borrowed a picture from social media and shared a laugh. Someone put up a picture of the new Velolaser on a buy-and-sell web page. These new mobile radars are highly controversial due to their being able to be clipped to just about anything, anywhere, and therefore highly effective at attacking our pockets.
The ad said, "...new radar, meteorologically tested, pinched by an ex-councilman going through an investigation. Need to sell quickly to pay for vices in the joint. Price negotiable (new around €14,000), accept payments with Black credit cards, envelopes, or in garbage bags." In that paragraph he got a dig at all the politicians and bankers that played with our money and then decided to go out and get some more from drivers who pressed down a little bit more than they should have on the accelarator. Unfortunately, (fortunately for whoever put it up, though) it has since been taken down. But Twitter is a nice place for a blast from the past.
I don't advocate that people who put others in danger should go unchecked, but I do feel that those who exceed the speed limit by a little should not be as prosecuted as they are now. I know, I've been there before. To go at seventy or eighty along a road empty of cars and pedestrians, with wonderful visibility, and then get a fine for exceeding the fifty kilometer an hour speed limit is extremely frustrating. I understand these people very well.
Except for the woman who thought it was a barbecue.
Some years ago, a truck plowed into a fixed radar near Gijón, and left it moribund by the road. Someone else came along and saw an opportunity. He picked it up and took it to the nearest junkyard, where he sold it by the kilo. The junkyard owner, however, decided to turn over the cadaver, and the opportunist was arrested and charged with stealing public property. In Navarra this past January, another pair of opportunists, saw an abandoned tripod by some garbage containers. It looked like it had been left for the trash, and that it hadn't fit into any of the containers. They looked it over, picked it up, and started to take it to their pickup truck, where other junk destined for the junkyard was sitting. Not so fast. The Tráfico patrolmen who had put the mobile radar in an appropriate place to catch speedsters moved quickly to avoid their camera being taken to the crusher. They caught it in time. Nothing happened to the opportunists because they had honestly thought it had been abandoned. Um, we'll leave it at that.
Others have been more specific, and taken the copper wiring of some fixed radars in the province of Valencia. That's what some foreign copper thieves did almost ten years ago, when the price of copper was through the roof, and any and all kinds of electric installations ran the risk of being dismantled for private profit.
One of the strangest, weirdest thefts of a mobile radar apparently happened on the road between Mérida and Sevilla. Over ten years ago, a couple of friends went to the Ikea near Sevilla, and on the way back, saw an abandoned barbecue similar to one they had seen in the store. They stopped, saw that no one was around, and decided to take it home. It seemed to have been abandoned, yet looked quite new. It was just like an Ikea product; streamlined, and of a completely modern conception. So, they folded it, put it in the trunk and set off back home.
As they continued on their drive home, they heard sirens behind them and pulled over. The Tráfico officer walked up to them and asked them about the barbecue they had found. They explained about their trip, that they were on their way back to Mérida and had found the barbecue abandoned. The officer asked, "What, there are no mobile radars in Mérida.?" Yeah, in this day and age, two women who had never seen an image of a mobile radar. That is a rarity worth contemplating. As the officers walked away with their rescued contraption, one of them asked the other, "Okay, let's see where we can set up this barbecue now."
And then, there's the person who, in the comfort of their own home, borrowed a picture from social media and shared a laugh. Someone put up a picture of the new Velolaser on a buy-and-sell web page. These new mobile radars are highly controversial due to their being able to be clipped to just about anything, anywhere, and therefore highly effective at attacking our pockets.
I don't advocate that people who put others in danger should go unchecked, but I do feel that those who exceed the speed limit by a little should not be as prosecuted as they are now. I know, I've been there before. To go at seventy or eighty along a road empty of cars and pedestrians, with wonderful visibility, and then get a fine for exceeding the fifty kilometer an hour speed limit is extremely frustrating. I understand these people very well.
Except for the woman who thought it was a barbecue.
Nice insights into your life in Spain. I cannot imagine anything like that happening in the Netherlands; they're much too law abiding here, but it reminds me of when I lived in South Africa...there, everything was pinchable and everything pinchable was currency!
ReplyDeleteLaw-abiding is definitely not something a Spaniard would be convicted of!
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