[letsboogie351]

Top this for a speeding ticket


Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in
an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A-1 Great
North Road.

The officers (who are not named) were testing a new hand-held radar
device which locks on to approaching vehicles and tracks them over a
distance to check the speed. They aimed it at the top of a hill so as to
pick up vehicles coming over the crest and was surprised when the speed was
recorded at over 300mph (its maximum designed capability) The machine then
stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.

The radar had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet coming in
over the North Sea, which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the
Border district. Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off
a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office.

Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style. "Thank you for your
message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You
may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Tornado had
automatically locked on to your 'hostile radar equipment' and sent a
jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, the Sidewinder
Air-to-ground missiles aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also locked on to
the target. Fortunately the pilot flying the Tornado responded to
the missile status alert intelligently and was able to override the
automatic protection system before the missile was launched".