Cops 0, cranky cassowary 1
THEY handle thugs, louts and hardened criminals - but an angry cassowary was enough to send police packing yesterday.
Two officers at Mission Beach, south of Cairns, were standing on the side of a road trying to clock speeding drivers when a grumpy bird emerged from the rainforest.
"He was taller than me … and he wasn’t happy," Sgt Dan Gallagher said.
"He looked at us, watched us and then came right up next to us.
"He was so close to me it wasn’t funny.
"You could see he didn’t want us around … we packed up and got out of there."
The grumpy cassowary is believed to be the same adult bird that chased a car recently after standing his ground in the middle of South Mission Beach Rd – the same road police were on yesterday.
A driver reported the bird for refusing to budge and then going up to the stationary vehicle’s window and eyeballing her.
The territorial bird then chased the car as it drove slowly away.
Sgt Gallagher said the cassowary had put the wind up him about 7am.
"We`d been there about an hour ... we could hear something in the bush and then out he came," he said.
"It seemed he had a problem with the radar site too."
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Move along please: A cranky cassowary has sent patrolling police packing.
