MWN: You shouldn't be driving edition

So I got reminded by Bobby G's wife of a story I saw last night that he and I would surely have run competing posts on, and a quick look at the news told me this subject might just blow up into a whole post.  So let me start with the story that set the wheels in motion...

Here's New York's own Joshua Lewis Brown.  Joshua had a flat on the Indiana Toll Road, and some kind State Troopers were about to help him get a tow truck.  But then, things went wrong for young Joshua...

While a trooper prepared to oblige Brown in his request, he noticed a fake license plate handwritten with crayon on a grocery bag. That caused the troopers to investigate further, ISP said in a release.

The troopers ran a check of the Toyota’s VIN and discovered the vehicle had been reported stolen out of State College, Pennsylvania the day prior.

The troopers also found that Brown had never been licensed to operate a vehicle in any state, and was on probation for Grand Larceny. (Thanks to WANE.com)

...a fake license, written in CRAYON on a grocery bag.  If your fake anything starts out with, "in crayon", you probably should have yourself tested for  Reality Withdrawal Syndrome.

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So I had this story in the back of my mind as I perused the news, and immediately hit THIS gem...

Here we have... well, let the special constables from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, tell it...


Specials from Rotherham found this Peugeot tonight and arrested its driver for an expired license, no insurance, leaving an RTC, not showing up to court and last but by no means least, for driving whilst so incredibly drunk he failed to realise he was missing a tyre.’ (Metro.co.uk, with a heads up from Fox News)


Perhaps he should have drawn one on the rim with crayon...

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 Let's see what other car stories are out there...

Problem:  Truck slides on ice, goes backwards into Lake Michigan in Chicago.  Solution:  How about salting the road?  Further problem:  Vehicle is a city salt truck.  Fortunately, both workers were safe, and the truck was pulled shivering from the cold water by a crane.  Luckily, it still had that 4th tire!  (From the Chicago Sun-Times with a heads-up from CNN)


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From the Moscow Times, we get an article about Tesla's new Cybertruck.  Well, actually, a handful of Social Media takes on the new Cybertruck, including:

New mobile Lenin burial plot...

Bringing home the bacon...

...and necessary options for navigating Russia's rural roads...

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Here's an older story, but still pretty good...

In October, a shipment of 900 Mercedes-Benz autos were stopped at port in Australia and sent back because they were infested with our friend above, the heath snail, indigenous to Europe but an invasive pest to Australia.  30 of the little tourists were found in the shipment, and that was enough for the Department of Agriculture to put up the U-Turn sign. (Xinhua)

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Welcome to a city whose name doesn't fit the condition at hand- Lucknow, India.  Luck was not 'now' this day, when the city's new FASTag program, where a camera scans your car's windshield sticker and charges your toll without you having to stop, was launched.

Problems:  The camera couldn't read the stickers;  promised hybrid lanes to be established in case of glitches, were not; and employees were charging luck-less drivers double "as a penalty"- You might want to rescind that rule until you KNOW what you're doing, guys... (Times Of India)


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And finally, you might want to leave that 'new car smell' to the experts...

The odor-challenged driver in Halifax, UK here sprayed what normal people might have concluded was an 'excessive amount of air freshener in his car while sitting in traffic... (BBC)

...and then lit a cigarette. 

He escaped with only minor injuries; his car and the windows of nearby businesses weren't so lucky.  Uh, dude, maybe you wouldn't need the air freshener if you gave up smoking... or Taco Bell...