PENGUINS
I have a near-neighbour, who is a policeman.
And he told me that, the weekend before the lock-down, he and a colleague were on traffic duty in Borough Road, Birkenhead. They were parked up in a lay-by, where they checked passing cars for number plates and condition, and for driving infringements.
Saturday morning was busy, mainly shoppers. They had a lunch break at noon. And were back on traffic duty by 12.30. It was reasonably quiet. Then, just after two, a car went passed, and, to the policemen’s great surprise, they could see that the back was packed with penguins, bobbing and jostling to look out of the windows.
The policemen exchanged looks, and, with blue lights flashing, set off in pursuit, They drew up along side the car and waved the driver to pull over.
He stopped, and the police car pulled up in front, and the policemen got out. And, as my near-neighbour approached the driver, the other policeman walked around the car, checking
The driver wound down the window, and said, “what’s wrong, officer?”
The other policeman came around the car and nodded that everything was OK
“Penguins, sir?”
“Yes … there’s 27 of them,” replied the man
“In the back of your car, sir?”
“Yes ,,, and they enjoy it.”
“That maybe so, sir, but it would be best if you took them to Chester Zoo.”
“Oh! OK”, said the man, “and thank you, officer.”
The driver wound up the window, and the policemen stood back and watched the car drive off.
The policemen shook their heads, got back into their car, drove back to the lay-by and spent the rest of their shift checking cars.
Sunday morning, they were back in the lay-by. It was a busy morning, with shoppers and weekend drivers, They had a lunch-break from 12.00 until 12.30, And carried on traffic checking after lunch.
Then, to their astonishment, shortly after two, the car, with the penguins in the back, drove past, and the penguins were as curious as ever, pushing and shoving to get to the windows.
Blue lights flashing ,,, and siren blaring … the police set off in pursuit. They drew up along side the car, and waved to the driver. He smiled and waved back. They gestured for him to pull over.
The policemen walked to the driver’s window
The driver wound down the window, “Good afternoon, officers.”
“Good afternoon sir,” said my near-neighbour. “If you remember, sir, we stopped you yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“And I mentioned about the penguins in the back.”
“Yes.”
“And and I said to take them to Chester Zoo.”
“Yes … and I did … and they loved it. And today I’m taking them to a talk at the Literary Group in the Athenaeum”
Submitted by John Gorman