Western Australia police are on the hunt for a group of men seen driving a motorised picnic table around the Scarborough Beach area in Perth on Sunday, while the general public seem to be more impressed by the technical skills required to actually make the table roadworthy. A video has surfaced of the two tables cruising down a busy highway, turning right at a set of traffic lights in order to refuel their unusual vehicles.
While the invention seems like a fun way to cruise through your neighbourhood while enjoying a few cold ones, Scarborough police have been taking it a little more seriously, putting out a call for anyone who has more information on the drivers of these picnic tables. “It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt” is about the gist of WA Police’s post, saying that the drivers could face charges including “driving an unlicensed vehicle, driving an unroadworthy vehicle and drink driving.”
Yet in an interview with local radio station Radio 6PR, the driver of one of the picnic tables claimed that they did everything by the book, SMH reports. He said that two police officers actually accosted them while they were filling up at the petrol station, but there were no major dramas and they continued on their way: “They told the boys that were drinking to tip their liquor out and get rid of it which we did and they said we’re not allowed to drive (the picnic tables) on the road and just to push them back across the other side of the road and then we can carry on from there.”
According to the owner of the tables, they can potentially reach up to 50kms an hour and handle a bit like a go-kart, but they’re pretty safe overall. He also said they don’t often take them on the road, more often showcasing them at motoring enthusiast shows or taking them for a leisurely cruise along the footpath. “We’re allowed on the footpath but not the road apparently according to the cops,” he said.
He also added that he and the driver of the other table were not drinking, although with such a strange contraption it looks like it would be difficult to tell who was controlling the vehicle at all. He also said that he was currently building his fourth motorised table — which begs the question of how long it will be until we start seeing a few of these cropping up in our Aussie dashcam compilations.
A WA Police spokesperson told Gizmodo that inquiries into the incident were ongoing.