Printing instructions: Press the printer button on your browser. If all else fails, press Ctrl + p
Patrick finished his shopping in the supermarket of his home village of Portchester. He ambled slowly in the noonday sunshine into the car park behind the shopping centre to put his bags in the boot of his
car.
As he moved towards his car he observed two youths, dressed in red anoraks and wearing red baseball caps, struggling with the lock of a white Nissan Bluebird car. Patrick watched them for a few moments
before speaking, ‘You two seem to be having trouble, he said.
‘Oh, it’s
alright, ‘replied one youth brightly, ‘the key sometimes gets stuck in the lock.’
‘Perhaps you would like to try my key, ‘suggested
Pat helpfully.
‘Why on earth would we want to do that?’
said the other youth in a sarcastic voice.
‘Because it’s
my car, ‘Pat retorted.
What happened next
The youths ran away and Pat telephoned the police. When Pat described the young men the police immediately knew who they were. Ten minutes later the boys were arrested in the local pub some 150 metres away
from where the attempted crime had been committed. They were still wearing their brightly coloured anoraks and hats.
Porchester
Porchester is one of those really old English towns that was important in Roman times, and probably right through history to the middle ages. It does not take a genius to work out
that the name was derived from Port and Chester.
Although it does not have a famous football team, Porchester still has a castle in a reasonable state of repair. Porchester is right on the coast and the nearest big towns are Southampton and Portsmouth.
Unrelated Story
Air traffic controller nodded off
An aeroplane was forced to circle for more than half an hour after an air traffic controller dozed off. The pilot of the cargo plane said he attempted a number of times to contact the controller for
permission to land – but got no answer.
He was forced to circle around Nice Airport in France until the sleepy controller was woken up by security officials more than 30 minutes later. French air
traffic control service DGAC described the case as ‘
extremely rare’
and said the cargo plane ‘
had never been in difficulty’
. An internal investigation has now been set up to find out why the controller
fell asleep on the job.