Tom
I am a FH squatter
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 17,686
Driving up to Bradford tonight from Manchester, passing Hartshead Moor services I saw a police range rover on the hard shoulder. No lights, no other vehicle. Odd I thought, but carried on. Got to the end of the M606 and there was a police volvo on the bridge the slip road led up to.
Straight away the Volvo slotted in behind me as I drove towards the city centre. The blue lights came on, and we pulled in. I got out of the car and the officer asked me to sit in the back. I noticed as the officers got back into the car, they both were wearing pistols on their belts!
I was completely clueless as to why I'd been pulled, and more than a bit 'errr.....ooookkkkk' at the guns! Tax - ok. MOT - ok. Insurance - ok. Licence - ok. Driving - ok.
One of the officers said my car had been flagged up as there was some 'intelligence' on it. Odd I thought, then the officer said "We don't really know what it is, we're just doing a routine stop to check it out".
It was then that I remembered that last week I'd been filming in Dudley, enacting a scene with a load of kids who were in a competition playing computer games. Enacting a game called 'counter strike'. A game where players run around with guns and rifles, shooting eachother.
While we were driving between locations on this shoot, the cameraman was 'playing' with the plastic toy pistols we'd bought from a toy shop. I hadn't thought it the greatest idea he'd had, and said to him that he probably shouldn't be waving what looked very much like a gun around in my car, especially when the guy in the car behind me was gesticulating and going a bit loopy, obviously having seen the gun.
Anyhow it turns out that this bloke had phoned the police, told them what was happening, my car then gets flagged on the system, an ANPR camera somewhere on the M60 in Manchester picks me up (the police said they'd been following me from Manchester), and poor old me gets pulled over!
When I told them about this job I'd done, and showed them the bootfull of sound recording equipment I had in the car (to prove I do indeed work in telly), and even that I still have one of the guns at home and they were welcome to it if they wanted, they were happy to let me go. They knew exactly why they'd pulled me, and exactly what the intelligence was, I guess they just wanted to test me to see how honest I was.
I was quite impressed by the ANPR system, and I must admit slightly concerned at how easy it was to track my movements once I'd appeared....
Straight away the Volvo slotted in behind me as I drove towards the city centre. The blue lights came on, and we pulled in. I got out of the car and the officer asked me to sit in the back. I noticed as the officers got back into the car, they both were wearing pistols on their belts!
I was completely clueless as to why I'd been pulled, and more than a bit 'errr.....ooookkkkk' at the guns! Tax - ok. MOT - ok. Insurance - ok. Licence - ok. Driving - ok.
One of the officers said my car had been flagged up as there was some 'intelligence' on it. Odd I thought, then the officer said "We don't really know what it is, we're just doing a routine stop to check it out".
It was then that I remembered that last week I'd been filming in Dudley, enacting a scene with a load of kids who were in a competition playing computer games. Enacting a game called 'counter strike'. A game where players run around with guns and rifles, shooting eachother.
While we were driving between locations on this shoot, the cameraman was 'playing' with the plastic toy pistols we'd bought from a toy shop. I hadn't thought it the greatest idea he'd had, and said to him that he probably shouldn't be waving what looked very much like a gun around in my car, especially when the guy in the car behind me was gesticulating and going a bit loopy, obviously having seen the gun.
Anyhow it turns out that this bloke had phoned the police, told them what was happening, my car then gets flagged on the system, an ANPR camera somewhere on the M60 in Manchester picks me up (the police said they'd been following me from Manchester), and poor old me gets pulled over!
When I told them about this job I'd done, and showed them the bootfull of sound recording equipment I had in the car (to prove I do indeed work in telly), and even that I still have one of the guns at home and they were welcome to it if they wanted, they were happy to let me go. They knew exactly why they'd pulled me, and exactly what the intelligence was, I guess they just wanted to test me to see how honest I was.
I was quite impressed by the ANPR system, and I must admit slightly concerned at how easy it was to track my movements once I'd appeared....
