Witnesses say a man about thirty years of age got out of the car, lassoed the damaged pole camera and used his vehicle to topple it (except for this being in England, I would suspect he had some calf-roping experience). He then doused it with an "accelerant" and lit it on fire. The accelerant was probably petrol, this being England.
The car is described as a black Landrover Defender. It is a 4-wheel drive and certainly rugged enough for the bulldogging job. Hope he didn't scratch it up, too much.
The pole-mounted speed camera is likely a GATSO and determines speed using radar technology and shoots a flash picture only of the rear of targeted vehicles as they drive away from it, so this particular hit-and-run victum never saw it coming.Andy Greaves, the Detective Constable leading the investigation had this to say: "The camera is in place to help maintain the safety of road users in the area and for someone to take such an extreme action cannot...be tolerated by the Surrey Police."
The cameras cost about 20,000 Pounds Sterling or $32,340 each.
Fines for speeding can cost you 3 penalty points and 60 Pounds or 97 dollars.
DC Greaves is optimistic about finding the arsonist. The car is distinctive and the crime took place in a busy area, and the man may have burned his hands.
This story recalls to me a movie starring Rowan Atkinson wherein he is driving a James Bond type sportscar and gets flashed by a speed camera in downtown London and he blows it up using a rocket launcher built into the back fender. The sly smirk on his face is worth the price of admission.
Surrey is a county in the southeast of England and has a population of over one million persons.
You can go to the original news story at Guildford People
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