Article from: www.thenewspaper.com/news/37/3742.asp

3/18/2012

Germany, Saudi Arabia Deal With Destroyed Cameras
Germans turn speed cameras into birdhouses, Saudi Arabia turns photo radar vans into tanks.

Vigilantes are using creative means to destroy red light cameras and speed cameras worldwide. From burning tires and explosives to circular saws and ramming, the techniques have forced government authorities to become creative.

In Saudi Arabia, officials have reinforced the glass on speed camera vans, Al Yaum reported. Too often, ticketing operations have been disrupted by local residents hurling bricks and other objects through the windows of the camera vehicle.

In Friedrichshafen, Germany, officials took the ruined shell of a speed camera and turned it into a birdhouse, the Berliner Kurier reported. A local official came up with the idea of using some wood to make something useful out of an otherwise useless hulk sitting in a garage.

"Obviously we do not want any more speed traps to be destroyed, but we know what we will do if they are," Harald Baur told the local newspaper. "There are a few more trees near the office which could take a bird house."

Germans often refer to speed cameras as starenkasten, a nesting box for starlings, because of their resemblance to birdhouses.