David's Daily Diversions

Fishing for Minnows

The cops are out in force. Like the boy detective Encyclopedia Brown in the eponymous stories I read as a child, West Yorkshire police have a policy of "no case too small".

It took 30 uniformed officers and 15 marked cars, but they nabbed Sandra Hughes. Not that she offered any resisitance. But you can't too careful with dangerous criminals like her. After all, she had allowed her local garage to use a black screw intead of a white one to attach her number plate. She drove around for 18 months obliviously flouting the law, but she was caught and punished. No warning for her. That'll be £30.

West Yorkshire police knew that a job like this wasn't one they could handle alone. They had back up. Their operation included Customs & Excise, the Vehicle Inspectorate, and trading standards officers.

And in case the nefarious 57-year-old grandmother was lying about her identity to get someone else to take the rap for her crime, she was fingerprinted on the spot. After all, identification is all important to the police. That's why her crime was so serious. Because the screw is the same colour as the numbers and letters on the plate, it might interfere with the automatic number plate recognition system. In other words, it might keep the cops from knowing who she is and where she is at all times.