Photo: Randophoto from Flickr
It’s only natural for police to get interested in a car speeding on the highway, but when that car happens to be a hearse, the situation suddenly has the potential of becoming a bit weird.
Unless they’re transporting what they’re supposed to be transporting, a hearse is a car like any other, at least as far as the police are concerned. And when a hearse is speeding, it will get a ticket like any normal car would.
This sense of normality came to a stop after the Russian police stopped the runaway mortuary vehicle as it was driving north of Khabarovsk, a city not too far away from the Chinese border. Even though I can imagine they weren’t very keen on seeing what was lying inside, the policemen did their job and asked the driver to open the rear doors.
Next to the customary casket, the law officers found a bunch of plastic containers with caviar hidden under some wreaths. Obviously, this looked suspicious, so the coffin itself was opened only to reveal more caviar containers. In total, the poor hearse was carrying close to a ton of the gourmet delicacy.
Needless to say, the driver and his partner - who were both employees of a funeral director - told the police they had no idea the caviar was there. According to their story, they were hired by a man to take the body of a deceased relative of his to the city morgue. Sure, a one-ton deceased relative. And some extra caviar containers on the side, ‘cause there’s nothing weird about that.
The police are now investigating where that caviar came from and the two - plus everyone else who’ll be found guilty in connection with the case - risk charges of illegal production and distribution.
That’s because caviar production is a regulated activity in Russia, with only a few dozen sturgeon farms having the official grant to produce it. At the same time, it is forbidden to fish wild sturgeons, as their numbers have dwindled greatly since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Laws can be flawed and people will always try to break them, but something I will never understand is why the hell would you be speeding when you know you’re already doing something illegal and don’t want to get caught. Could the driver actually be telling the truth? I don’t think this argument will stand in court, though.
This sense of normality came to a stop after the Russian police stopped the runaway mortuary vehicle as it was driving north of Khabarovsk, a city not too far away from the Chinese border. Even though I can imagine they weren’t very keen on seeing what was lying inside, the policemen did their job and asked the driver to open the rear doors.
Next to the customary casket, the law officers found a bunch of plastic containers with caviar hidden under some wreaths. Obviously, this looked suspicious, so the coffin itself was opened only to reveal more caviar containers. In total, the poor hearse was carrying close to a ton of the gourmet delicacy.
Needless to say, the driver and his partner - who were both employees of a funeral director - told the police they had no idea the caviar was there. According to their story, they were hired by a man to take the body of a deceased relative of his to the city morgue. Sure, a one-ton deceased relative. And some extra caviar containers on the side, ‘cause there’s nothing weird about that.
The police are now investigating where that caviar came from and the two - plus everyone else who’ll be found guilty in connection with the case - risk charges of illegal production and distribution.
That’s because caviar production is a regulated activity in Russia, with only a few dozen sturgeon farms having the official grant to produce it. At the same time, it is forbidden to fish wild sturgeons, as their numbers have dwindled greatly since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Laws can be flawed and people will always try to break them, but something I will never understand is why the hell would you be speeding when you know you’re already doing something illegal and don’t want to get caught. Could the driver actually be telling the truth? I don’t think this argument will stand in court, though.
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