7/10/2011
Maryland, Australia: Speed Camera Van Windows SmashedVigilantes in Queensland, Australia and Hanover, Maryland attack mobile photo radar units.
Vigilantes in Maryland and Australia attacked the windows of speed camera vehicles last week. In Anne Arundel County, Maryland a man in his 60s took a small hammer to the window of an automated ticketing van that belongs to Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) at around 11:30am Wednesday. The van had been stationed on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway to generate citations on the high-volume route just north of the Route 195 exit.
In a show of extreme force, police shut down the freeway for three hours and deployed SWAT teams from the Maryland State Police and Anne Arundel County Police, along with K-9 units and helicopters in an attempt to find the man who caused two large cracks on the speed camera Jeep SUV's front windshield. Police failed to find any suspect, although there is a possibility that fingerprints were recovered from the hood of the camera vehicle. Early reports from the incident that the man had fired shots or was swinging a sledgehammer proved inaccurate. The camera van driver claimed he saw a shotgun.
In Brisbane, Australia a young man bashed the front passenger-side window of a photo radar van as it flashed on Beams Road in Carseldine, the Courier-Mail reported.