German police nab motorist playing flute
Wednesday, September 10, 2003 Posted: 5:41 PM EDT (2141 GMT)
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) – German police caught a man playing the flute with both hands as he sped through traffic at 130 kph (80 mph) on a busy highway, police said on Wednesday.
“He was leaning back in the seat and steering the car with his knees and feet,” said Johann Bohnert, a spokesman for police in the town of Traunstein near the Austrian border.
“He looked like he’d had practice.”
He now faces a fine of 50 euros ($56).
The 52-year-old from Salzburg in Austria, birthplace of Mozart, the composer whose works include the opera “The Magic Flute,” told police he was not actually blowing the instrument.
“He said he was just practicing fingerings,” said Bohnert.
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This is the kind of thing that one would go out on a country road somewhere and learn. The kind of place one might take their 12 year old to learn a wee bit of driving.. except less crowded. Just dont bring your 12 year old along, once they see this you will loose them forever.
First gear, its all right. Just a nice easy pace to start getting a feel for it. At an apropriate place in the tune, you can drop one hand to grab another gear..
2nd gear, its all right. Now your pushing 20-25 MPH. Not bad.
3rd gear, faster, faster its alright.
I know a Piper who claims to get in rather a lot of practice this way on straight boring stetches of highway… While Driving a Semi Tractor. Not too bad, with your normal everyday one trailer set up. :roll: This guy drives a 3 trailer “train”.. I wont say which company, or even what color their trucks are.
Yeah, I’ve used the “fingerings” excuse before myself…
But seriously when I heard this on NPR this morning the first thing I thought about was it being on this board. This is just an attempt by THE MAN to keep us from whistleing.