Friday, February 21, 2003

Something I saw on Fark:

Road rage prompts Osama 'sighting'
By MARC SCHANZ/Staff Writer

ADELANTO — U.S. forces can forget about purging Osama bin Laden from some dank cave in Afghanistan. He's gone.

In fact, the Saudi international terrorist drives a yellow semi-truck and trailer out on Highway 395 — at least that's according to one High Desert motorist's report to the California Highway Patrol.

"Yes, it was quite a hairy situation," said CHP Officer Bob Scranton Thursday morning, chuckling. "Just in case you needed proof that there are some crazy people out there, this will show you."

Scranton said a motorist, apparently in a fit of road rage, called the CHP to report that the famed terrorist was alive and kicking and hauling a load of paper out on the highway.

The motorist said bin Laden passed him over a double-yellow line north of Shadow Mountain Road.

The man, who was driving a Ford Taurus, became so incensed by the trucker's move that he initially communicated by vivid hand gesture.

Then he called the CHP and relayed his fanciful story.

"When he called in to report the incident, he told dispatch what had happened and that the driver of the truck looked like Osama bin Laden," Scranton said.

Scranton said that while an amusing story, the CHP doesn't exactly appreciate motorists filing false reports. In fact, it's an illegal act that can get a person cited and fined.

Not wanting to take any chances, however, the agency dispatched Officer Dave Williams out to the highway. Around 8:40 a.m., Williams pulled over both the driver of the truck and Taurus near Phelan Road.

He quickly confirmed that the trucker — who in fact wore a beard, a turban and was of Middle Eastern descent — was not the fugitive federal officials and several Western nations are desperately seeking to capture.

"It was determined in a pretty short time that he was not, in fact, Osama," Scranton said.


I wouldn't be surprised at anything

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