back to article Oz man cracks one off while speeding in drug-packed car

An Australian man unsurprisingly faces a spell in jail after cops pulled him for driving at 147km/h (91 mph) in a Holden SV6 packed with 5kg of cannabis, two dope plants, a couple of drug pipes and a loaded .22 rifle. Brendon Alan Erhardt, 39, was pulled on 16 July on the Northern Territory's Stuart Highway roughly 500km (310 …

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  1. Mister_C
    Coat

    good old oz

    the court heard the drugs had a value of "AU$136,000 if sold by the gram in Darwin - or double that in indigenous communities".

    Nice to see that even after all the government apologies, the drug dealers are still happy to continue the tradition of ripping of the abbos

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I don't get it !

    "Regarding the rifle, Erhardt said it was for "shooting kangaroos from the vehicle whilst driving north".

    So, one hand for the gun, one for the wheel and one for his......

  3. min

    talk about...

    ...'drawing' attention to yourself - in great, white arcs all over the dashboard and windscreen.

    yes, i have bad taste. so sue me.

    imagine if he had an accident while 'working' himself and driving through Darwin. would that finally prove the existence of 'darwinism' conclusively?

    no coat..it is summer.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    It's this sort of thing...

    .

    .

    that gives recreational drug users a bad name.

    .

    .

  5. Tim
    IT Angle

    If he really was a drug-donkey...

    ...he wasn't very professional about it, was he?

    I would bet he was celebrating his haul in true idiot style!

    Presumably the technology involved was his camera... or his car, or whatever the rozzers used to rouse their suspicions!

  6. TMS9900
    Coat

    Flick one off the wrist behind the wheel...

    ... and like who's never done that before? Oh.

    <----

  7. Adrian Esdaile
    Thumb Down

    Makes me proud to be an Aussie

    A shame he doesn't qualify for a Darwin Award.

  8. Chris Thomas
    Thumb Up

    Now THATS balls!

    Kilograms of drugs, plants on the back seats, loaded gun (in both ways! however one slightly less loaded afterwards) and excessive speed

    now THATS a man with balls, when he's caught, "hey! np guys! look at all the cracked out shit I've been up to!!! oh btw, cracking one off at 150kph is a blast!!"

    you've got to hand it to him (although metaphorically and with YOUR hand, not mine) he took being arrested and put in prison on the chin, am impressed

    (icon: The hand, because well, y'know)

    chris

  9. kempsy
    Stop

    Pricey drugs in Australia?!

    Hang on lets do the maths here.

    1/8 = 3.5g

    According to the news report these drugs were valued at AU$27 per gram.

    That means for a standard eighth by this figure the Auzzies have to pay around AU$96 or £45 - a lot more than the £15-20 (according to Google) the average user in the UK pays.

    Can any Aussie readers let us know if this is right or are the Aussie police massaging their drug seizure figures?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    4.96kg?

    Looks like he packed an ounce or so into one of those bongs before setting off.

  11. lansalot
    Go

    so....

    "Are you going to come quietly, sir ? "

    "I already have officer !"

    Was he caught white-handed ?

  12. whitespacephil
    IT Angle

    Esky v Chilly Bin

    Can never remember whether an Esky is the Oz word and Chilly Bin is the Kiwi one or vice-versa... either way, does it really need the bootnote to describe?

    Oh, and the IT angle, please?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meanwhile, in Gloucestershire, UK...

    ...nineteen people were injured chasing a giant cheese down a steep slope at the annual cheese rolling at Coopers Hill.

    (Pot, kettle...)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    mercy

    Should've had mercy on the fiancee and jugged the guy.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Drug packed?

    Oh come on. 5 Kg is hardly "packed". That's not even 1/4 of a suitcase full.

    It says 4.96 Kg, but I bet it was 5Kg and the cops had to sample it, just to check it wasn't cake or something.

    And 91 Mph? I get regularly overtaken in the UK when doing 90 mph. What's the speed limit over there anyway?

    I bet the police where glad they didn't get shot in the face after they pulled him off.... oh, I'm not going to send this it's just too lame..... no, can't resist hitting "Post comment" now.

    Give the man a cation and some counselling. And an honorary Darwin award. Made me laugh though.

  16. Steven Swenson
    Thumb Up

    He lost

    It sounds to me like he lost a bet.

  17. Sooty
    Coat

    Is it actually illegal?

    Not sure this particular scenario is covered by the highway code :)

  18. John
    Paris Hilton

    What about the soundtrack?

    Sex - check

    Drugs - check

    Rock & Roll - ?

    Paris because

    Sex - check ....

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You forgot to convert some of the units!

    In particular, a .22 rifle has a calibre of about 5.6 mm and is apparently good for shooting small mammals, not kangaroos, though if he can manage to hit a rat shooting from a vehicle travelling at 94 mph, while masturbating, then he's rather a good shot.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    One handed driving

    I'm convinced that most of the drivers here are wankers. This item also fits in with Aus supposedly having the highest rate of single vehicle accidents on the planet. Still, if you're driving alone on an empty bush road for 12 hours with nothing but tarmac ahead of you and sheep either side then a bloke's mind is bound to wander.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @kempsy

    unless the price has gone up more the Gas from BritishGas I'd say google was wrong.

    As you could get an 1/8th of solid for a tenner and a half for £25 in 2001 and an ounce for £40.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Re: You forgot to convert some of the units!

    5.56 mm is the NATO rifle round. I think that around the world you'd find plenty of people that could testify to its effectiveness against more than small mammals.

    Mines the one with the Kevlar lining

  23. Greg Clough
    Go

    The speed limit in NT is 130 kph (90 Mph)

    The speed limit in NT is 130 kph (80 Mph)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_in_Australia

    So the guy was going a bit fast, but not as crazy as the article makes it sound... and there is a *LOT* of space in the NT. In fact, there is so much space they never used to have a speed limit until a few years back. Point you car into the desert and go as fast as you want... alas, that all changed when two Japanese Businessmen in a Ferrari F-40 killed a couple of workers in the Cannonball Race:

    http://www.arcadegames.net/rumours.htm

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    "An insulated plastic cool box"

    Do you people have to suck the poetry out of everything? Your world may be a bleak monotone of "insulated plastic cool boxes" but ours is a wondrous, richly textured, spiritually enriching, one - resplendent in "Eskis" and, in the quirky off-beat way of our cousins across The Ditch, "Chilly Bins".

    Maybe, in the grey, grey, gloom of midsummer, with the nostalgic stupor of the French, the passionless precision of the Swiss and the Teutonic "Vorsprung durch Technik" just a one-armed dog paddle and a quick jog away, your heart is an insulated plastic cool box within which lies the sogged leftover meat paste sandwiches of regret, but down here, where even the deepest winter is a glory of sunshine and blue skies from horizon to horizon, our Eskis are packed solid with frosty bottles of home-brewed opportunity. Slightly hoppy with an afternote of malt and new hope. Have one. Theres plenty to go around.

    It just so happens that some people hope for the opportunity to fiddle with themselves while cracking the ton with a bootload of weed and a camcorder. That is their way and we must respect that as we would expect them to respect OUR way.

    In any case, lay off the Eski.

  25. Anon Koward
    Thumb Up

    For clarity

    Esky is the Aussie word Chilly bin is the kiwi term

    Drugs are a rip-off in Oz on average and more so in remote locations like Darwin.

    Average speed on the highways in Oz are 110kph but in the NT (Nothern Territory) the dirt roads have no speed limit

    Of course the cops always over-inflate the value of a drugs bust and the coppers up North (down South from the UK of course but you know what i mean), will always take a cut for themselves

    Slapping the bat whilst driving is a past-time for most NT drivers, fuk all to look at except ant hills and sand anyway..

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    re: sooty fizzogs...

    ... so speeding with an unsafe firearm while having a crafty Sherman is a centuries old traditional macho insanity out there? Hmm...

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    For the avoidance of any doubt....

    This is my rifle this is my gun, one is for fighting one is for fun....

    Mine's the Full Metal Jacket......

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sentenced to marry his girlfriend

    Poor bugger. I think he needs a better lawyer...

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    giving drug takers a bad name

    Seriously though, this kind of behaviour even gives gun toting, cannabis crazed speeders a bad name.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    the IT angle

    was for you to write a program to convert kph to mph and kg to ounces.

  31. bob_blah

    Couple of things

    Firstly, I don't think people who have only ever driven in the UK can relate to the experience of driving in rural Oz - you can drive for hours in pretty much a straight line without seeing another car, let alone any sign of life. It is flat, hot and so incredibly boring you just can't fathom it until you've done it.

    Secondly, you would be more likely to get a reaction out of a kangaroo by insulting its ethnic heritage than shooting it with a .22, particularly at any real distance. As for being the standard NATO round, yes, it does wonderful jobs against the soft fleshy bodies of humans. But the difference between a roo and a human body is pretty conclusive - you hit a human in a car doing 90mph, there isn't going to be much left of the human. You hit a roo at that speed without a bullbar, and you won't be driving that car again. Ever. And it's likely the roo will be getting up, shaking itself off, pissing on your child's head and then bounding off to nibble on some grass.

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Kiwi Accent

    It's Chully Bun actually.

  33. Dick
    Stop

    Re: Re: You forgot to convert some of the units!

    You can't just convert the caliber and assume that it's the same thing. The 5.56x45mm Nato round is a whole different animal, it packs 10x the energy of the regular .22 long rifle round. Hit a kangaroo with a .22 and it'll probably return the favor by beating the crap out of you. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56_mm_caliber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Long_Rifle#cite_note-0

  34. Bucky
    Thumb Up

    What...

    no utube link?

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @5 kilos is half a suitcase

    how bigs your suitcase? you get some decent, properly dried green, and 5k will take up more than a suitcase.

    and whoever could get an ounce of dirtbar for £40, lucky you. i don't know if they have soap in australia though, so it might not be that relevant

  36. Graham O'Brien
    Go

    Sheer poetry! AC (Thursday 31st July 2008 14:24 GMT)

    "Maybe, in the grey, grey, gloom of midsummer, with the nostalgic stupor of the French, the passionless precision of the Swiss and the Teutonic "Vorsprung durch Technik" just a one-armed dog paddle and a quick jog away, your heart is an insulated plastic cool box within which lies the sogged leftover meat paste sandwiches of regret, but down here, where even the deepest winter is a glory of sunshine and blue skies from horizon to horizon, our Eskis are packed solid with frosty bottles of home-brewed opportunity. Slightly hoppy with an afternote of malt and new hope. Have one. Theres plenty to go around."

    Forget FOTW - can we have a mention for the best prose? Give this guy a job on the Reg!

  37. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Also carrying weapons grade stupidity on board?

    If stupid was made out of dynamite there'd be a 10km-wide smoking crater in the NT now.

    Or maybe he figured he couldn't make things much worse than they already were by being honest about what he'd been doing?

    That'll be one entertaining court appearance I reckon.

  38. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    £15-20/g ?

    Maybe in Camden.. the rest of London (allegedly) is between £5-10/g

    I also dont buy the whole drug mule aspect - why would he be taking plants from the grow op himself? Much more likely, he planted up a bunch of big sativas in the (sparsely unpopulated) NT outback, had just harvested them and got 'a little excited' on the way back home with his stash and seedlings.

    Probably a bad idea having the pot on the back seat, with your gun..

    Mines the coat with large, hidden, inside pockets - smells a bit of feet...

  39. DMG
    Coat

    Manual Car?

    Maybe he'll wash his hands of the whole thing. >_>

  40. Charles Manning

    Why can't NT grow their own?

    Driving dope to Darwin sounds like taking coal to Newcastle. Surely NT is ideal for growing dope?

    I don't smoke dope, but friends do. The last transaction I saw was some years ago in South Africa in an area formerly called Transkei. City boy asked for approx 10 quid of dope, expecting a few joints, and the local guy bought him two plastic shopping bags full and promised to drop the rest off the next day.

    And for the unit fanatics: 1 hand = 4 inches = 101.6 mm

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scalping the Indigenous

    why do the locals pay twice the price?

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    At the risk of sounding like pedantic gun nut...

    .22 is an excellent plinking round good for rabbits and foxes

    22/250 is the same caliber projectile but a much heavier slug and with a much much more powerful propellant charge. It is excellent for large, soft, game like Kangaroos and "the most dangerous game of all".

    Someone shooting (at) kangaroos with a .22 is probably doing it out of ignorant cruelty which doesn't necessarily rule out the sort of person who films themselves tackle-handed shipping drugs interstate. In fact it all sort of comes together as a pretty good literal and metaphorical definition of a wanker. Can we lock him up for that, at least?

    Oh good. i sound like a pedantic gun nut's Presbyterian father-in-law.

  43. Rhys
    Flame

    Dunno what the Aussies pay

    But here in NZ an ounce of good stuff is between $200 and $350 NZD depending on how close you are to the grow zones (coromandel, northland and the tararua ranges in the north Island, any scarfies basement in the south island) and how long since the cops last raided the neighbourhood tinny house and carried off the stock causing a scarcity situation.

    fire icon cause you gotta burn it to smoke it.

  44. Bill Coleman

    Oz drug prices

    Just moved down under from Ireland. While most things are cheaper, there are some things which are far more expensive. Drugs, for example are f**king expensive here. Probably because it's so difficult to get things across the border, so the cheap supplies from columbia etc aren't so cheap. They have actually made it so that you have to show id and sign a register to buy a box of sudofed - in case you try to turn it into speed.

    Also telecoms charges are rediculously high here. But there are some benefits - anyone who tries to charge more then $3.50 for a cafe late goes bust - bye bye starbucks!!!

  45. Tim Bates

    Some minor Aussie corrections.

    @ Anon Koward: NT's roads all now have limits. 120km/h on previously unlimited roads as of last year some time.

    @ bob_blah: Hit a roo at more than 100 even WITH a bullbar and the car will be written off. The impact will smash the bullbar deep into the bonnet, and probably twist the chassis... And all that's assuming you can even get a strong bullbar for a Commodore. All I've seen is crappy plastic "pedestrian safe" rubbish on government cars.

  46. Curtis
    Boffin

    Bullet Calibers

    Technically, the 5.56 nato round is a .223 caliber. the difference is in the powder load and the actual size of the round, a .22 caliber round (assuming an lr or long rifle configuation) usually has around 140 to 195 joules of energy and is only good to about 150 metres. there are stories of "fluffy" men being shot with one and the round effectively bouncing off.

    the 5.56 nato round on the other hand, usually packs around 1300 joules of energy. I can't testify to the effectiveness of the round on a kangaroo, but can attest to the fact that it works quite well on an alligator.

    it's quite common is some parts of america to allow children as young at 12 to begin firing the .22lr cartridge under supervision. there's virtuall no kick to it. as for the 5.56 nato round, that's usually left untill 16 or so when the shooter has enough mass to absord the recoil without breaking an arm or shoulder...unless they don't lock the charging handle and get a cut under the eye when fired.

    leave it to a dumb american to know gun rounds and it's effects on verminous wildlife.

  47. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stuart Highway

    Unless it has changed recently, the Stuart Highway is one of the few remaining roads in the world that has no speed limit (because of the immense distances between places in the Northern Territory) hence he wasnt actually breaking any speed laws just drug laws and laws of good taste which dictate you generally dont film yourself while jerking off...

  48. Dr Patrick J R Harkin

    @Anonymous Coward

    "if he can manage to hit a rat shooting from a vehicle travelling at 94 mph, while masturbating, then he's rather a good shot."

    I used to bull's-eye womp rats in my T-16 back home.

  49. Bruce Sinton

    Kiwi Accent !!!

    Listen Mate, we don't have an accent , down here we speak the King's , err no we have a Queen now I believe, so Queen's English.

    God bless her , and also Paris.

  50. Victor Meldrew
    Joke

    hmm.....

    it puts a whole slant on the phrase... Please blow into this bag until I say stop.

    nuff said.

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    The old army poem revisited:

    This un's my rifle.

    This un's my gun.

    This un's for shootin'.

    This un's going off on the run.

  52. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Shootin Roos and 22's

    As the holder of a gun license and owner of a .22 and frequent vistor to a mates farm in WA, I can confirm unequovicably that a 22 is sufficient for killing one of our national emblems...and allegedly capable of killing the other one. The key is to a) get close enough or b) be accurate enough. Of course shooting one from a moving vehicle whilst stoned and tossing off a bunch of orphans...the guys a better shot than Lee Harvey Oswald.

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