It’s often said that a smile goes a long way, but one Hong Kong man recently found that it’s not quite a “get out of jail free” card. Or indeed, a “stop you from going to jail” card.
At around 5pm yesterday, two police officers found a silver car parked illegally on Reclamation Street in Yau Ma Tei, with a note reading “gone to yum cha :)” tucked under a windshield wiper. However, because that’s not how the law works, the cops wrote the driver a ticket, HK01 reports.
At that time, the driver, a 30-year-old man surnamed Lau, approached the officers and tried to talk his way out of it the penalty. Spoiler alert: it worked about as well as his smiley face.
After his futile attempt at skirting the law, Lau climbed into his car and attempted to escape the scene, knocking over a police officer in the process. Lau’s high-octane hijinks ended roughly 100 meters away, when he got stuck in traffic and intercepted by a police car, Apple Daily reports.
As we learned from his earlier actions, however, Lau doesn’t give up so easily. The 30-year-old reportedly got out of the car and physically scuffled with police officers trying to arrest him. At least 14 police officers were deployed to the scene, and Lau was eventually subdued.
Following preliminary investigations, police officers arrested Lau for dangerous driving, failing to report a traffic accident, failing to stop after a traffic accident, failing to show a valid driver’s license, and driving without third party car insurance. We’re no experts, but we’d hazard a guess that all those charges have a combined penalty that’s much higher than a parking fine.
The policeman that Lau knocked over was sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for injuries to his wrist and waist.
The Hong Kong Police Force recently launched an indefinite campaign dubbed operation “Move-Sky” to combat illegal driving and parking. Those who are found parking, loading, unloading, stopping, waiting, picking up passengers or alighting at restricted zones like bus stops and no-stopping zones illegally will be ticketed without warning. Vehicles may be towed if necessary.
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