Farmer not fooled by fake policeman
Upper Austrian officials are investigating after a fake police officer tried to fine a farmer.The man was stopped driving his combine harvester on a main road near St. Marien yesterday (Tues).The prankster on a road bike wearing a three-day stubble, sunglasses and a cycling helmet with a sticker saying “Polizei” (Police) checked the farmers licence after pulling him over. But the 50-year-old grew suspicious after the bogus policeman warned he would fine him but failed to say why.The fake officer eventually decided to get on his bike and pedal off when the farmer refused to pay up. The man reported the incident to the local police station where officers said they had never heard of a colleague on a bicycle.This incident comes on the heels of a Viennese policeman fined 7,200 Euros in court for ordering a parking violator to buy him a crate of beer instead of paying up.The 28-year-old officer wrote on the ticket “That costs one beer crate” after spotting a police sign inside the illegally parked BMW.He wrongly assumed the car owner was a colleague. The man, who said he hung up the sign “for fun”, turned up at the nearest police station with a crate of beer later the same day.The policeman was suspended from work. He faces internal disciplinary proceedings which could result in dismissal.