Man in DeLorean allegedly hits 89 mph, denies time travel
Technically Incorrect: In England, strange happenings on the roads. Could someone be trying a novel way of getting out of Brexit?
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Can this really go 89 mph? If so, what really happens?
You don't see many of them around.
It's not as if you wander down the roads of California and muse: "Oh, look. Another DeLorean."
In England, however, they seem to occasionally emerge from the garage. Or the underground cave.
I'm moved, you see, by the tale of DeLorean owner Nigel Mills.
The Brit was driving his blue DeLorean in Margaretting, Essex, when he thought he'd test the boundaries of Hollywood.
At least, I surmise this had to be so, as he allegedly took it past the magical 88 mph threshold that's supposed to activate the flux capacitor and send it into another dimension.
You've seen "Back To The Future," surely.
So, as the Daily Mail reported on Wednesday, here was Mills of Brentwood, England racing to posterity or some future robot age. Suddenly he was stopped by police and accused of going 89 mph.
Can this have been possible? Surely he would have been in the 18th century, the era from which some say Britain has never quite emerged.
Still, he had to go to court.
Mills, 55, explained to the Mail that this was a Sunday morning and that he's a law-abiding citizen.
"I was being prosecuted for going 89 mph in a DeLorean, [but] wasn't something meant to happen at 88 mph?" he said.
He insisted: "I saw the guy with the speed gun and thought [I'd] check my speed. I can honestly say I was not trying to time travel."
Should we take his word for it? And here's another question: what happened to the police officer?
He failed to arrive in court, you see.
Perhaps he's now a Stormtrooper, you might think. Perhaps he's serving roasted venison to Henry VIII.
The Essex Police told me: "The officer involved in this incident is currently deployed on specialist duties on a police operation."
Why is it so easy to imagine that this officer is suddenly involved in the hunt for Jack The Ripper?
This story originally published at 2:19 p.m. PT September 14.
Update, 7:15 a.m. PT September 15: Adds comment from the Essex Police.