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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Bevan Hurley

Florida driver blames Putin and threat of nuclear war for speeding

Twitter/Flagler County Sheriff’s Office

A Florida driver who was pulled over for speeding tried to blame his offending on the threat of Vladimir Putin launching a “nuclear thermal war”.

Flagler County Sheriff’s deputies pulled the motorist over in Palm Coast, just north of Daytona Beach, on 24 February after he allegedly broke the speed limit while turning a corner in a residential area.

In a video uploaded to Twitter, the driver can be heard offering different excuses that he had just bought the car, and saw a car coming and “wanted to get out before them” while being questioned by the deputy.

Unimpressed, the officer says: “I literally saw you run the stop sign, make a left turn, and hop on the gas.”

“There was no reason for that at all.

Unsupported twitter embed

“To tell you the truth, I just found out that Putin has said he is going to launch nuclear thermal war against the world and I was trying to get back to my house to find out what was going on.

“I’m freaking out here, okay. I got people in Ukraine.”

The officer can be heard laughing, and proceeds to take the man’s insurance and registration details.

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