Etc.

A new meaning for fast food

Picture this scene: Police clock a pizza deliveryman violating the posted speed limit by 32 m.p.h. – and they let him go. Well, for the moment, anyway.

It happened last Saturday in Townsville, Queensland, the tropical seaside hometown of Australian Olympic gold-medal swimmer Libby Trickett. The driver, a 20-something whom we'll call Mick, was en route to the home of a customer with a hot pie when the cops first saw him. At that point, he was doing 82 m.p.h. on a stretch of road zoned for 50 and, by rights, should have been pulled over for, at the least, driving to endanger. Still, the officers made no attempt to apprehend.

On his way back – again well over the limit – however, they pounced. Mick didn't deny he'd been speeding but explained that he was 20 minutes behind schedule. To make matters worse, he had only a provisional license, the interim step between a learner's and an adult permit. Or, rather, he did; it since has been confiscated for the next 15 months, meaning he may need to find a new job. He also has been fined $1,225.

OK, so why wasn't Mick stopped when he could have been? No, he hasn't been identified as the police chief's son or the boyfriend of the mayor's daughter. It's because, out of consideration for the hungry customer, the cops waited for the driver to make his delivery first.

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