Traffic Police Baffled By Appearance Of Cut Out Civil Guard Cars
A flatpack Civil Guard traffic patrol car that is slowing down speeding drivers has baffled police in Spain, who say it does not belong to them.
The cardboard patrol car – complete with a battery for flashing blue lights – appeared at a roadside outside Madrid.
But officials have denied it has anything to do with them and suspicion has now fallen on pranksters.
Video footage of the realistic-looking car shows other vehicles apparently slowing down when they catch sight of it in the distance.
But after the footage did the rounds on social media, the Spanish Civil Guard denied the cutout was theirs, leaving who was behind it a mystery.
The clip shows how painstaking work went into creating the cutout, as it looks remarkably like the real thing, even from a close distance.
After netizens voiced their criticisms of what they saw as a sneaky ruse, the Spanish Civil Guard was forced into issuing a denial that the ploy was theirs.
The Spanish police said in a statement: “We do not have that type of dissuasive elements, an investigation has been opened to find out the origin of the video.”
The Civil Guard and the Directorate-General of Traffic currently use helicopters, radars and drones to monitor the speed of road users.
But cardboard cutouts of police cars do not currently feature in their inventory of speed-limiting strategies.
After some claimed the tactic was part of a project by the central Spanish region of Castile La Mancha, the regional ministry was also forced into issuing a denial.
Those responsible for the stunt had not been identified at the time of writing.
Similar practices have been employed by the police – with positive results – in countries such as the United States, Japan and Turkey.
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