Why was a 20-something male driving in Burnaby at 4 a.m. with a replica handgun in his hoodie pocket?
That’s a question police put to a driver at a road block early Sunday morning.
“Well, I thought it’d be cool to drive around with,” was his answer, according to Const. Kevin Connolly, a Burnaby RCMP traffic section member.
The traffic section was out for an impaired driving enforcement on Boundary Road by the Highway 1 overpass starting at 4 a.m. Sunday.
One of the first drivers they pulled over was a man in his early 20s, according to Connolly.
The car smelled of alcohol, Connolly said, and the man failed a roadside test.
Fortunately, the driver spoke up just before an officer arrested him.
“It was at that moment that he decided to say, ‘Officer, I have a BB gun on my person at this moment,’” Connolly said.
Anytime police encounter a weapon in the course of their duties, they have to assume it's real until it's proven otherwise, according to Burnaby RCMP media spokesperson Cpl. Mike Kalanj – that's why police take encounters with even BB guns seriously.
"Don’t assume we know it’s fake; some replicas look like the real thing, so leave them at home," he said. "This will go a long way in keeping you and the public safe."
The traffic section stopped about 100 drivers Sunday morning.
Besides two impaired drivers, officers also caught a driver with no insurance, several drivers violating driving restrictions, a driver with tinted windows and a driver with a “heavily modified muffler,” according to Connolly.
He said the traffic section has started conducting the 4 a.m. enforcements to catch impaired drivers who mistakenly believe a couple hours of sleep will make them OK to drive.
“A lot of time we’re finding drivers, they haven’t even peaked in their blood alcohol level, even after sleeping for a few hours,” Connolly said.
He said the traffic section will be setting up more roadblocks over the Easter Weekend.
Follow Cornelia Naylor on Twitter @CorNaylor
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