7/26/2009
UK, California and New York Destroy Traffic CamerasTraffic cameras smashed in Fremont, California; grabbed in New York City, New York; burned in West Yorkshire, UK.
Two men bashed a red light camera with a baseball bat in Fremont, California on Wednesday at 11:45pm, the Fremont Bulletin reported. The device, owned and operated by Australia's Redflex Traffic Systems, is located at the intersection of El Portal Avenue and Niles Boulevard. Police have no suspects.
On the next day in West Yorkshire, England, vigilantes set fire to a speed camera at 11:40pm, the Huddersfield Examiner reported. The device located on Woodhead Road in Lockwood was severely damaged.
Over the course of a month, nearly one-fifth of New York City's red light camera system were taken out of service by a man and a woman who allegedly used a cherry-picker to snatch the cameras out of their protective housing. According to the New York Post, the suspects snatched twenty-two of the 12-megapixel Nikon D2X cameras, worth $4000 each. According to police, thirteen of them were sold to a local camera shop for $300 each. These have been recovered. The website of the shop in question showed D2X cameras, not necessarily ones involved in the incident, had been sold online for $949 each. Police arrested a 29-year-old woman and a 45-year-old man and charged them with the theft. The man is a former subcontractor for Mulvihill ICS, the company which does installation and maintenance work for the cameras along with American Traffic Solutions (ATS), which operates the ticketing program.