Fowl play: Flying duck caught on Swiss speed camera may be ‘repeat offender’
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The flying duck that was caught in a speed trap going at 52kmh in a 30kmh zone in the town of Koniz on April 13.
PHOTO: GEMEINDE KONIZ/FACEBOOK
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GENEVA – A radar image of a speed offender taken in central Switzerland in April revealed that the culprit was not only a duck, but also likely a repeat offender, the local authorities said.
Police in the town of Koniz, near the capital Bern, were astounded when they went through radar images snapped on April 13 to discover that a mallard was among those caught in a speed trap, the municipality said on its Facebook page over the weekend.
The duck was caught going at 52kmh in a 30kmh zone, the post said.
The story, first reported by the Berner Zeitung newspaper on May 12, got even stranger.
It turned out that a similar-looking duck was captured flying in the same spot at exactly the same speed, on exactly the same date seven years ago in 2018, the Facebook post said.
The municipality said it had considered whether the whole thing was a belated April Fool’s joke or a “fake” picture.
But the police inspectorate said it was impossible to doctor images or manipulate the radar system.
The computers are calibrated and tested each year by Switzerland’s Federal Institute of Metrology and the photos taken are sealed, the municipality explained. AFP
