Sunday Mail [Scotland] June 28th 1998 Police Blazing Mad as Crook Watch Goes Up in Smoke! It was like a scene straight out of the Keystone Kops. Undercover police were hot on the trail of a gang of eco-warriors. They spent hours setting up a secret camera at their hideout in a barn stacked with hay. But as the detectives settled down for the night in their unmarked car, their stake-out almost became a STEAK-OUT. For the red-hot exhaust from their Vauxhall Astra set the hay ablaze. And the detectives had to run for their lives as the flames leapt higher. The bungling cops watched in horror as the barn was destroyed - with their car inside. Then they had to get on their mobile phones to dial 999! Firemen raced down to the scene and doused down the barn as embarrassed cops looked on. Now Tayside Chief Constable William Spencer is blazing mad. For he'll have to fork out for the damage - believed to be around �330,000. Police launched the secret operation in a bid to stop eco-warriors damaging crops. They hoped the secret cameras installed on the barn roof and linked to the police car would catch the culprits red handed. Instead, it was the cops who felt hot under the collar as the flames licked around their Astra. Last night a police spokesman said; "Everyone is laughing their socks off. To say the officers are red-faced is the understatement of the year." Green campaigners have vandalised a number of fields throughout Scotland. A group calling themselves Fife Earth First! chopped a 100ft cross in an oilseed rape crop. The campaigners claim that genetically modified plants could pose a risk to human health. Police fear that the eco-warriors are set to target the Scottish Crop Research centre near Dundee. =========================================================================== /`\ /`\ RABBIT INFORMATION SERVICE: _ _ (/\ \-/ /\) P.O.Box 30, Riverton, Western Australia 6148 (.\_/.) )6 6( http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm \6 6/ >{= Y =}< VEGETARIAN PAGE =\ /= /'-^-'\ http://www.geocities/RainForest/4620 /O\ / (_) (_) / \ ( | . | U U ) | |} Pity the human race its illusion of permanence (| |)/ \_/^\_/ w'-'w ===========================================================================
