A warning to all...

[balthazarr]

'A man has been charged more than seven months after doing a burnout - because his crime was caught on a mobile phone and posted on the video-sharing website YouTube.

Traffic management unit officers admit the capture of the Kangaroo Flat man fell into place.

It began when an anonymous resident emailed the link of the burnout on YouTube to the Prosecutions Office at Bendigo police.

Prosecutors forwarded the tip-off to traffic management unit officers downstairs.

Leading Senior Constable Richard Webster said police viewed the footage, noting the distinctive white Commodore.

Days later, Leading Senior Constable Peter Dyer was at a service station when he saw the car filling up. A bumper sticker on the car bore the same name as the YouTube video.

Following investigations, the owner of the vehicle was called in for questioning.

"He made full admissions and admitted he did in the burnout in Arblaster Street in California Gully earlier this year,’’ Senior Constable Webster said.

Senior Constable Dyer then went to the address and saw tyre marks still visible on the street.

Knocking on several doors, two residents recalled the incident, with one pinpointing the date to April 25.

Police say the vehicle cannot be impounded so long after the incident, but they will apply for the 25-year-old offender to be banned from the roads for three months.

He faces charges of careless driving, improper use of a motor vehicle and causing undue noise, and will appear at Bendigo Magistrates Court at a date to be fixed.'

http://www.theage.com.au/national/we...1203-6q85.html

I don't condone hooning. But I fail to see how charging the guy seven months down the track is a good use of police resources.

And who is spending time on YouTube, forwarding links to the police? :

[RG]

Fair call I say, he's a clown for doing it in a public residential street and deserves what he cops. Why isn't it a good use of resources? He committed a dangerous illegal act, if he were in my street I would have done the same to him.

Now tell me that if you had a neighbour doing that, and you came across footage of it on YouTube as you were having a look that you wouldn't foward it to the Police. Gives me an idea for the clowns in my street.

[bloggs24]

i would be agreeing with russel if it were something extremely dangerous like drifting, donuts, street racing or something, but for a burnout is just ridiculous.

[RG]

Originally Posted by bloggs24

i would be agreeing with russel if it were something extremely dangerous like drifting, donuts, street racing or something, but for a burnout is just ridiculous.

Ever had someone in your street that does burnouts like that? It isn't just the annoyance factor but the fact that it goes so far as detracting from house prices. I certainly wouldn't buy in a street full of burnout marks.

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by Russell

Fair call I say, he's a clown for doing it in a public residential street and deserves what he cops. Why isn't it a good use of resources? He committed a dangerous illegal act, if he were in my street I would have done the same to him.

Now tell me that if you had a neighbour doing that, and you came across footage of it on YouTube as you were having a look that you wouldn't foward it to the Police. Gives me an idea for the clowns in my street.

As I said, I don't condone hooning... if you're being an idiot on a public road, you deserve to get done.

But the idea of the police - months down the track - spending time on YouTube, wandering around looking for a 'distinctive' car, investigating further, visiting the alleged offender's home, bringing them in for an interview, visiting the scene of the crime looking for evidence, and then charging the alleged offender, only to tie up the courts...

It seems like an awful lot of effort to me, for a crime that, IMHO, rates way down the scale.... it seems like the investigative efforts expended by police far outweigh the gravity of the crime.

I understand your points Russell - my question is, why didn't the neighbours call the police at the time?

[RG]

I probably should mention here that Bendigo does have an issue with hooning that the Police are trying to get on top of, much like Ballarat's problems.

It read to me that it was more of a coincidence that they got him. It was a distinctive car, with a sticker on it that read the same as the name on YouTube that was spotted by an officer at a servo while they were both filling up. Even though it was months down the track it was an offence that was reported with evidence provided so they couldn't just ignore it.

[4Vman]

Is this a "warning to all" about doing stupid things? or a "warning to all" about posting pictures of yourself doing stupid things?

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by bloggs24

i would be agreeing with russel if it were something extremely dangerous like drifting, donuts, street racing or something, but for a burnout is just ridiculous.

A mate nearly lost his life as a result of a "harmless" burnout when the car shot forward and sideways into a power pole...
There's no such thing as a "safe" burnout.

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by balthazarr

But the idea of the police - months down the track - spending time on YouTube, wandering around looking for a 'distinctive' car, investigating further, visiting the alleged offender's home, bringing them in for an interview, visiting the scene of the crime looking for evidence, and then charging the alleged offender, only to tie up the courts...

It seems like an awful lot of effort to me, for a crime that, IMHO, rates way down the scale.... it seems like the investigative efforts expended by police far outweigh the gravity of the crime.

I understand your points Russell - my question is, why didn't the neighbours call the police at the time?

did the police do the research on their time. it could be like this forum where members alert the moderators and/or administers to something that is out of line. if they saw it on their time, good on them. if they do what most others do at their job and surfed the net, while pretending to be working - who could blame them, certainly not around 90% of the population

while an actual burn out may not seem too dangerous, the likely hood of the perpertrator going overboard at the time or soon after the said burn out is fairly high. you can bet the kids that crash at 100kph plus and kill their mates were not driving like angels in the local mcdonalds car park


from what i have been told by a mate - the police do not follow up, when the neighbours dob some one in. fair enough my mate, is a hoon and probably sounds like a hoon on the phone, but he claims to have called them on numerous occasions regarding people in his street causing grief and the police have never shown up

good on the police for finding them - and if you do a burnout when a camera is on you - you deserve all you get. it is the oldest trick in the book. over 20 years ago, people with cameras wanted to take photos of us young kids doing burn outs - i wonder what for

[ltd]

Good to see anti-social behaviour being policed. Russell is 100% correct, whilst some may be defending this idiots act we need to flip the coin as to the residents rights. What right has this idiot got to affect the happiness and wellbeing of so many people for such a stupid and futile endeavor?
Crush the car I say.

[DBourne]

But the idea of the police - months down the track - spending time on YouTube, wandering around looking for a 'distinctive' car, investigating further, visiting the alleged offender's home, bringing them in for an interview, visiting the scene of the crime looking for evidence, and then charging the alleged offender, only to tie up the courts...

you dont know if the officer was spending time on youtube, could have been forwarded to him by a resident, might be his job to look out for such material, nothing to say he was bludging.

they weren't "wandering around looking for a 'distinctive' car" the officer happened to see the car by chance.

They followed up on it, the bloke even admitted to it, so why not get done for it?

seems like someone has a petty personal beef

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

Is this a "warning to all" about doing stupid things? or a "warning to all" about posting pictures of yourself doing stupid things?

How about both.

If you don't do stupid things, then you don't have to worry about pictures/video being posted up of you doing stupid things.

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by SgtBourne

...
seems like someone has a petty personal beef

I don't drive a white Commodore - distinctive or otherwise - if that's what you mean.

[FGII-XR6]

he was a tool and paid the price. the technology it there and it is a wise move for the police to use it. burnouts can seem harmless but they can go wrong resulting in loss of life

[Fireblade]

Not condoning what was done here but, my belief is the police seem to be spending more time trying to bust hoons or even worse normal citizens who make a small mistake in going 3kmh over the speed limit, when gang crime, pedophilia and other heinous crimes go unspoken and are probably on the rise, no horrific TV campaign about what rock spiders are doing to children to alarm parents of it, or no anti-gang campaigns and what the law is doing about street shootouts. But people that are into cars and were all tarred with the same brush now, we're all criminals of the worst kind. Come on give me a break, yes there is idiots out there who dont know a time or place for stupid $%^&, but what about the unspeakable crimes people are doing everyday that arent talked of, it is easier for the law to bust car lovers because it is easy to see who loves their car by the way the car looks and they just pull you over. Revenue raising is all it is about, and the police are just like the tax department at the moment with their hand out to every car owner.

[Fev]

Originally Posted by SgtBourne

you dont know if the officer was spending time on youtube, could have been forwarded to him by a resident, might be his job to look out for such material, nothing to say he was bludging.

they weren't "wandering around looking for a 'distinctive' car" the officer happened to see the car by chance.

They followed up on it, the bloke even admitted to it, so why not get done for it?

seems like someone has a petty personal beef

"It began when an anonymous resident emailed the link of the burnout on YouTube to the Prosecutions Office at Bendigo police."

[bloggs24]

Im not saying that burnouts arent serious enough for you to be fined for which i believe they are, but as balthazarr says, to go to such an effort to fine a bloke for something like a burnout 7 months ago, which didnt lead to an accident and obviously wasnt annoying enough for the neighbours to report themselves.

[Brent]

+1 for Russell’s comments, but I’ll go further with this if I may. Possibly I'm more sensitive to this issue than others, probably because I live on what would normally be a quiet residential street, except for the fact that what seems like 50,000 cars per day decide to use it as a shortcut between two semi-arterial roads. So, for approximately 18 hours per day, 7 days per week I have the pleasure of listening to every flog in bayside Melbourne race up and down my street at WOT…A great deal of the time they enter the street quite quickly, then accelerate hard down the road, only to then brake hard at the other end. Then there are some that decide that they’ll lay rubber down for the first 10 yards into the deal. If it’s a wet road, I almost cringe...the moron factor multiplies 4 times over. If you ever want to grow morons, just add water! LOL

OK, yes, I obviously drew a short straw via the street that I live in, but the lack of respect that people show, day in, day out is disgusting. Please keep in mind that most cars sound pretty noisy when driven hard down confined suburban roads, let alone if you have a worked V8, or a turbo with one of those stupid wastegate thingies. The ultimate annoyance though is burnouts, right outside your front door. Yes, I’ve had those too. In a residential area, it just shows total and utter disrespect for everyone else around, not to mention proving that the driver has the mental capacity of a chipmunk. There’s a time and a place for everything gents, and inner suburban areas isn’t it if burnouts are your “thing”.

In case you’re wondering, yes, I love my cars. I've got a cats back on my BF GT which certainly has a pretty angry note once you open the throttle, so I try to be mindful of how I drive her, depending on where I am and what time of day it is. If I'm out on an isolated road, or away from houses, or in the country etc, then yep...I'll open her up a bit. However, I don’t do it in quiet residential street/shopping centre/school zone etc. I just cruise down the road on light throttle and drive sedately. I'm especially mindful of this at night. Whilst you might reckon your god’s gift to the World Rally Championship, at 2am most people are trying to sleep, and if you think that you’re impressing people by belting out 100 decibels of crappy exhaust racket and squealing tyres in a suburban street, then sorry, but you’re an oxygen thief. Period.

And keep this in mind too. For every instance where we drive our cars inappropriately, it provides just another reason for the general public and media to lump us all into the one bucket of “Hoon drivers”, simply because we have a faster/sportier car. As car enthusiasts, its attention we don’t need. I can’t speak for all of you, but personally, I’m 100% keen on keeping my V8 for as long as possible, and I dread the day that it’s banned or legislated out of existence because its no longer ‘socially acceptable’. Stuff that! I want to keep my car a long, long time into the future, and if that means that I have to show a moderate amount of respect to other people when I drive it, then hey, that isn’t a big ask. Hell, you might even have people look at your car in appreciation as you cruise past, rather than have people mutter the word “[insert appropriate expletive]” as you blast by, bouncing it off the rev limiter with blue smoke billowing from under the guards. Just some food for thought ladies & gents.

Rant over.
:

Brent.

[ltd_on20s]

agree with brent there.

we all do stupid when we are younger, 10 years ago tho if you chirped your tyres off the line and the cop pulled you over usually it was a stern talking to and an eyeballing from the cop telling you your lucky your not coughing up a couple of hundred bucks and a defect notice. you'd then crap yourself for the next few weeks thinking every cop was out to get you.

and remember he did the crime so do the time. dont be stupid enough to let a mate upload it to pootube. AND DONT DO IT IN YOUR WORK CAR!!!!!!

[Rob's 76 Effy]

This is all so petty

[Bucknaked]

At the end of the day, if you choose to do something illegal, it really doesn't matter how long it takes till you get caught, or the methods used to report the activity, illegal is illegal and if your prepared to do the crime, then you should be prepared to answer to your actions. No point complaining about it. If you didn't do it in the first place, then you have nothing to worry about. And you can't really whinge if you get caught out.

[SPK-250]

Originally Posted by Exlorer Me

This is all so petty

It certainly is. Every "hoon" related thread ends up following the exact same line of conversation! Maybe we could sticky a thread that is basically a guide for hoon related articles titled You and Hooning

What get's me, is that, even with all the various levels of media hype about "hooning" and impoundment/licence loss scenario, hundreds and thousands of still need to run the gauntlet and engage in some sort of "hoon activity" when they know, that there is a 98% chance that they will be caught up with, and yet they all still go out there and do the stupid thing! The biggest thing being repeat offenders!!

Case in point the spanner in the OP. Putting footage of the incident on Youtube?? C'mon???????!!!!!!!!

I remember in a different thread a couple of days ago, someone said something about a "showoff" factor?? Thats all these people do it for, young or old!




P.S It must be that time of the month again coz there has been quite a few "hoon" related threads over the last few days.

[Redrum]

Good work!

[gcg2503]

Excellent - no such thing as "just a burnout" in my opinion

[devilcv8]

If he hadn't made admissions to police, their case would have been made much harder. Would the neighbours have been willing to goto court and give evidence, and how good would that evidence be months after the offence, especially when the first police contact was months later.

Just a good example of "keep your effing mounth shut when dealing with police"

[Wally]

Originally Posted by 4Vman

.....
There's no such thing as a "safe" burnout.

agreed.

[UNR8D]

^^ you are taking #### the I hope

your turning the tyres and moving at a rate of less than 5kmh... unless your a complete muppit and trying to do it with oil on a dry road with bugger all HP its not going to grip unless you get off the loud peddle, i believe your are refering to a POWERSKID where your are blazing the rears whilst gaining speed or loose traction at 80+ kmh, not sure about you but i see very FEW burnouts go wrong and its usualy ends up with a tailshaft breaking or tyres shreadding and killing the paint work not human carnage.

as for the topic of this thread, where he did it was wrong could half understand a industural area or disused road away from prying eyes but suburban street is really not the place, having said that 7 months down the track.... FFS we are talking about a black mark on a bit of bitumen here not rape/assult/fraud... and id be very suprised if it was HIS black marks 7 months on.....as others have said, he should have kept his mouth shut.

[Walt Kowalski]

Originally Posted by Russell

Fair call I say, he's a clown for doing it in a public residential street and deserves what he cops. Why isn't it a good use of resources? He committed a dangerous illegal act, if he were in my street I would have done the same to him.

Now tell me that if you had a neighbour doing that, and you came across footage of it on YouTube as you were having a look that you wouldn't foward it to the Police. Gives me an idea for the clowns in my street.

Excellent!!!

Get off public roads if you idiots want to hoon

[EDManual]

never admit anything to the police!! He would have been fine if he said nothing.

[XR6_190]

How stupid do you seriously have to be to post a video of it on youtube, and then put an ad for that on the back of your car, seriously, that's just asking for police to come and charge you.

As for the comments about don't they have something better to do with their time, remember, these are Traffic cops, this is what they are meant to do with their time, Pedophiles and Rapists are usually the domain of CI, not traffic.

They were acting on a complaint and information recieved, they are obliged to follow it up, especially somewhere like Bendigo where 'Hoons' are a big problem.