Prague Man Ditches Drugs; Cops, Swan Give Chase

The arrest of a bicyclist in the Czech capital last week was like something out of a slapstick film

Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas

Written by Elizabeth Zahradnicek-Haas Published on 06.10.2015 10:16:18 (updated on 06.10.2015) Reading time: 1 minute

It sounds like a scene from a cop caper or the set-up to a bad joke, but a bizarre police chase involving a bicyclist, his drug stash, a rower, and a swan actually occurred early last week in Prague.

According to iDnes.cz, police noticed a suspicious man crossing the Palackého Bridge on a bicycle last Tuesday afternoon. The cyclist, who had failed to yield for an ambulance at the crosswalk and was driving on the pedestrian sidewalk to boot, also appeared to be smoking a cigarette while biking. (A no-no in the Czech Republic?)

On closer inspection, the police determined that the cigarette was a joint and gave chase, causing the man to toss a number of baggies into the Vltava.

Once officers had apprehended the suspect and called for back-up, they enlisted an oarsman to help recover the baggies; 6 of the of 7 discarded items were scooped up by the rower. A seventh came dangerously close to being ingested by a passing swan.

Police reinforcements arrived just in time to snatch the final baggie, later determined to be pervitin, from the curious swan.

The man faces up to two years for possession of narcotic drugs. The traces of marijuana and pervitin found in his blood also mean he’ll likely be slapped with a citation for “driving under the influence” and a couple of lesser violations: driving on a sidewalk and driving without safety reflectors.

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