Driver blames pterodactyl for crashing into pole

From Wenatchee World:

A 29-year-old Wenatchee man told police a pterodactyl caused him to drive his car into a light pole about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
When police asked the man what caused the accident, his one-word answer was "pterodactyl," Smith said. A pterodactyl was a giant winged reptile that lived more than 65 million years ago.

Link (Via Nothing To Do With Arbroath)

Previously on Boing Boing:
• Leprechaun opens car door for pantless man

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

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gollux

That Wenachee Terbaccy ‘ll get you every time. Unless a time rift opened up in front of him. Maybe we could get a cool Sci Fi story out of this.
Mark Gordon

Maybe he saw one of the several R/C pterodactyls that can easily be found on the market and got so distracted he drove off the road. It does seem an odd hour for someone to be flying radio-controlled reptiles, though.
pupdog

Pterodactyl would be an awesome name for a mixed drink. Then we could blame all sorts of things on them…
Jardine

@13 We can’t stop here! This is bat country!
CatsGrin

I would like to draw attention to a previous posting on Boing Boing:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/03/13/unicorn-chaser-no-li.html

Might this be another case of police slang being misinterpreted?
stovis

It was obviously a shapeshifter who was messing with him. Damn shapeshifters…
Fooksie

How it may have looked:

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u120/Fooksie/Pter-attack.jpg
Geno Z Heinlein

Maybe he said, “Paolo lies.”
sonny p fontaine

maybe a flashback to the little ceasars pizza ad campaign of thr late eighties. guess this one will remain a “ROSEBUD”
AverageJane

Considering that it’s Florida, I’m putting my money on it having been a crane or a heron.
wurp

Pteradactyls were dinosaurs, not reptiles.

IANAP(aleontologist)
xoe

My sister once came running into the house screaming that there was a pterodactyl outside. It turned out to be a Blue Heron. Remarkable bird. Lovely plumage. … scared the crap out of her though
Cpt. Tim

its feasible. i’ve thought i’ve seen the things before.
desired username

@8

actually, they’re not dinosaurs. they’re from the same period, but pterosaurs (including pterodactyls) are winged reptiles. anything that flies or swims does not qualify as a dinosaur.
husayndas

Adding on to 11:

Yeah, and dinosaurs ARE reptiles themselves, they’re just a specific kind of (strictly terrestrial) reptile.

Also, I always thought pterodactyl was the laymen term for pterosaur, and that pterosaur was the “correct” term or pterodactyl, but I may be mistaken on that.
voi3ad

“We were somewhere around
Barstow, on the edge of the desert…when the drugs began to take hold.

I remember saying something like: I feel a bit lightheaded. Maybe you should drive.

- Hmm ?

Suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us…
and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats…- all swooping and screeching and diving around the car.

- And a voice was screaming:
Holy Jesus. What are these goddamn animals?”

- Did you say something ?

- Hmm ?

Never mind.

It’s your turn to drive.

No point in mentioning these bats, I thought. The poor bastard’ll see them soon enough.

Raoul Duke (Hunter S. Thompson)
http://www.cswap.com/1998/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas
Anonymous

There have been times when rifts in time appeared, where untrained psychics nevertheless momentarily saw through time.

One such instance:

After a civil war reenactment, two participants decided to walk the short distance to their vehicles, and instead of changing clothes, felt it was expedient to remain in uniform, and carry rifles over shoulders.

When reaching the first car, the other participant told his buddy “Later!” and continued on, when it dawned on him that a good bit of walking could be avoided by cutting across the local cemetery to get to the highway on the other side where his car was parked.

Walking down the hill with rifle over shoulder in civil war uniform, the reenactor noticed a vehicle on the highway slow, swerve, then crash into a light pole in front of a highway patrol vehicle hiding in a “Speed Trap.”

The reenactor turned to angle down to his car, where he stripped off his outer Civil war uniform into “civies” and put his musket into the trunk.

Stopping to see if he could render assistance at the vehicle wreck, the amused highway patrolman told him, that a Sailor on his way back from shore leave had crashed into the pole, but was only shaken up.

However, they were administrating a “sobriety” test, as:

“The Sailor swears he was distracted by seeing a “Civil War Soldier” in uniform with musket over shoulder walking through the cemetery!”

Gee, Officer, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it…………………;->
ToddBradley

I spent some time on the reservation with a Navajo teenager named Bobby a few years back. We were driving around the incredibly remote area his family lives, and came across some “Anasazi” ruins in a canyon.

I asked him why he thought the Anasazi died out. He told me with firm conviction that their pottery designs had become too complex, and so the pterodactyls came down and killed them. Considering this happened only a few hundred years ago, pterodactyls must have lived much more recently than 65 million years ago.
captnkurt

It was Pterri from Peewee’s Playhouse!
MacBastard

And that’s why I moved away from Eastern Washington to Seattle – it’s not the pterodactyls that’ll getcha; it’s the drunk, dirtweed smoking tweekers that’ll do you in.
MacBastard

@Gollux

I would not recommend that anyone smoke anything grown in or around Wenatchee. Probably full of apple orchard pesticides and other crap they spray on the fruit crop.
soni

Looks like this was caught on camera
VinceFong

Another one-word reply/excuse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbfs2lYM2sQ
Chickie Pants

Maybe it was just an abnormally large bat. A regular sized one would freak out most of the people I know anyway.