It’s all fun and game until someone gets hurt, or fired.
According to reports, two Clermont, Florida officers have landed in a bit of hot water over a speeding prank pulled on a fellow officer.
Last March Officer Christina Fowler was patrolling in a construction zone when she witnessed a car recklessly barreling through at speeds well over the designated limit. Naturally she flipped on her lights and gave chase. The offending car continued to flee — reaching speeds of up to 90 miles per hour — until finally being pulled over by Officer Fowler.
Once pulled over, the driver appears to give the impression that he is about to flee on foot, at which point Fowler draws her gun. The man then identifies himself as fellow officer Marc Thompsons, who from the video mounted on the dashboard of Officer Fowler’s cruiser appears to breakdown in laughter explaining his little stunt was nothing more than a joke played on the nine-year veteran. Apparently Officer Thompson was not alone in his little high-speed escapade either, as incident reports indicate that two other off-duty officers were in the vehicle at the time, one of whom turned out to be a sergeant.
In spite of recklessly and dangerously speeding through a construction zone Officer Fowler did not issue any speeding citations, with everyone seemingly getting a kick out of the prank. Well, almost everyone.
According to The Orlando Sentinel it appears both Officer Thompson and Sgt. Mark Edwards were fired earlier this month as a result of the incident, although that is being appealed by the policemen’s union, while the officer riding along was suspended for a day without pay.
So there you have it, thanks to the wonders of modern technology we bear witness to yet more bumble-brained, high-speed hijinks. For some reason people doing stupid things always seem to get filmed — Bob Saget made a career out of it, and no we’re not talking about America’s Funniest Home Videos – but we suppose we shouldn’t complain. After all, we get to sit back and bask in others foolishness from the comfort of our desks.
