Aussie gets second car yanked under anti-hoon laws after posting antics on Facebook
According to The Herald Sun, since Victoria, Australia introduced anti-hoon legislation on July 1, 2006, more than ten cars a day have been confiscated from their owners. That's over 8,000 cars in three years, more than 5,000 of which the police still have. Despite those big numbers, Victorian Peter Black has the distinct honor of being the first Aussie to surrender two different cars in two years for hooning.
While our instincts generally tend to sympathy any time a car is taken away, we can't feel sorry for Black because he's guilty of criminal vanity: he broke the law and then posted the video of it online. That led to someone alerting the police as to the video's existence, and in turn, to the authorities alerting Black that he could hand over the keys to his Ford Falcon ute. How many times do we have to say it? Drive safely. If you don't, please keep it to yourself.
Black's case goes in a similar file to Aussie Joshua Shelton's – the 19-year-old had his arm amputated after a high speed crash, then had his license taken away after he was busted two months later doing donuts, and then he got busted this week twice in an hour for two different "hoon-related activities" while he was a passenger. These kids today...
[Source: Herald Sun]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
13enS 6:42PM (7/09/2009)
"How many times do we have to say it? Drive safely. If you don't, please keep it to yourself."
I had a coach in high school tell us "If you're going to be dumb enough to do something wrong, be smart enough to not get caught"
...my dmv record is clean.
Reply
Mike P. 6:55PM (7/09/2009)
I take the advice of my first-year ECON prof:
"In this course (and indeed in life), cheating is allowed. Getting caught, however, is not permitted, and will result in dire consequences."
Redeemed 7:07PM (7/09/2009)
"In this course (and indeed in life), cheating is allowed. Getting caught, however, is not permitted, and will result in dire consequences."
True. We must choose to fly straight or be prepared to crash and burn when we don't.
As for the idiot in the video, he just makes the cop's job that much easier.
Judy Zik 12:17AM (7/10/2009)
Totally agree. Besides there are more than enough places you can do this on PRIVATE PROPERTY. Why on earth would you want to do it on public roads where someone could hit you?
Rob 7:01PM (7/09/2009)
I'm wondering how they can bust him when they don't know the location, or who the driver is. I have high speed videos on youtube, but I never show who is driving, or where the location is, so... good luck prosecuting me.
Reply
Acefighter 7:11PM (7/09/2009)
The license plate is probably still on the vehicle. Easy enough to trace.
PLUS, if he posted it on Facebook, then the idiot probably posted it on HIS page...which has his name.
Guy's an idiot, and got caught because of it. I just laugh.
dwightB 12:39AM (7/10/2009)
Acefighter, NOTHING in your reply addresses what Rob clearly stated....
Curtis 8:56AM (7/10/2009)
dwightB, what are you rambling about? NOTHING in your reply is intelligible. Acefighter clearly stated a few possibilities of how they found the location and identity of the driver.
1. License Plate could have been on the car, I’ll explain how this works, the police put the numbers into a database and voila! They see what car is registered under that number, who owns the car, and where you are currently located.
2. Facebook. it’s a well known fact law enforcement, businesses and nosey friends/acquaintances all snoop on people’s facebook pages. If the video was on there, that pins him.
Rob’s probably got some amount of intelligence (huge emphasis on ‘some’) because he doesn’t show who he is and probably doesn’t display his license plate in the videos.
Corey 7:04PM (7/09/2009)
I did the same thing last week in my E36. Whoops, shouldn't have typed that. Be right back, need to go close my garage door...
Reply
Kaveh 7:08PM (7/09/2009)
yeah, posting illegal stuff and people wonder why the get caught, durrr
Reply
MKIV 7:10PM (7/09/2009)
AB you tease... where's the video???
Reply
aj121489 7:37PM (7/09/2009)
Click the pic to go to the original article and the video is on the right side
MKIV 9:18PM (7/09/2009)
Thanks Aj..
C'mon now, taking the guys car a way for doing some doughnuts? That's a little extreme, me think. That looked like fun.
Carzzi 7:17PM (7/09/2009)
The wussification of Australia is complete. Australia has turned into quite the police state, admitting in court the use of facebook and other public videos as evidence against hoonery... how could they ascertain location, time and veracity?
Reply
Venom 7:25PM (7/09/2009)
To whomever posted this blog.
If you are going to write an article on an American blog to an American public, maybe you should explain the meaning of "hoon".
You can pretty much figure it out but still it should be explicitly clarified.
Reply
ack154 7:26PM (7/09/2009)
Ya, I have no clue WTF they're talking about.
Aloysius Vampa 8:09PM (7/09/2009)
I know nothing about any of the slang in Australian English, but I do know exactly what hoon means.
vikramflora 9:02PM (7/09/2009)
"write an article on an American blog to an American public"
Right, because there is absolutely no one else in the world that reads this blog at all, just simply "an American public"
And wow, aren't you just disgusted that Autoblog didn't tell you what the word hoon means, but all isn't lost, you actually learnt a new word today
Ken Stamper 9:54PM (7/09/2009)
You are sitting in front of a computer on the internet. If you are familiar with a sight called "google" you could probably get it handled.
But since you can't... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoon
Venom 10:03PM (7/09/2009)
You obviously do not get my point Ken.
A properly written article takes into account cultural differences and things that are not in common and explains them. I hope you went to college because the first thing they teach you in writing class is that you want to make what you write understandable to your readers, if not they will move on to someone else who does.
I and others should not have to read the article and then go searching the Internet for the meanings. A good writer should anticipate their readers questions and answer them before they are asked.
The writer is the vendor and I am the customer.
Education. It matters.