We all hate traffic cameras. They catch us in moments of inattention, slap us with fines we didn’t ask for, and do it all without a human touch. It feels like an invasion of privacy—an automated system designed more to squeeze out cash than to make us safer. But while most of us grumble and pay the fine, some people take their frustration to the next level.
This week on Weird and Wacky Wednesdays, we look at those who have taken their hatred for traffic cameras a little too far.
Traffic Camera Vandalism
In Portland, Chase Grijalva had enough. After being caught speeding five times by traffic cameras, he decided to take matters into his own hands—or rather into his own gun. Grijalva was arrested after going on a shooting spree targeting the very cameras that “shot” him first. Over the course of two weeks, Grijalva fired 17 times at the city’s speed cameras, racking up $500,000 in damages. His attempt to outsmart the system backfired, though, and now he’s facing serious charges. Perhaps next time, he’ll think twice before trying to settle a score with the robots.
But Grijalva’s not alone in his war on traffic cameras. In Baltimore, a man named Daniel Thomas Kerins didn’t just attack the cameras—he stole them. Posing as a maintenance worker in a white van, Kerins used a grinder saw to cut the locks and swipe the cameras. Police later tracked him down, but not before he made off with several devices. While Grijalva’s anger was clear—too many speeding tickets—Kerins’ motive is more mysterious. He only had one camera ticket tied to his vehicle, making his camera theft spree a bit of a head-scratcher.
Global Scale
Across the pond in the UK, two men were arrested in Manchester for vandalizing speed cameras with power tools. They were caught in the act, cutting down cameras on Manchester Road. It seems no one is safe from the ire of those who feel wronged by automated enforcement, regardless of location.
And in Russia, the excuses get even more creative. Citizens in the Kursk region have been complaining about receiving fines from traffic cameras while allegedly trying to outrun Ukrainian drones. While there are no reports of drones chasing civilian vehicles, drivers near the combat zone are racking up speeding tickets and blaming their reckless driving on the threat of drones. However, the cameras keep flashing and fines keep piling up. It seems that even in a war zone, automated enforcement doesn’t take a day off.
At the end of the day, traffic cameras may be justified by elected officials as a public safety tool, but they certainly don’t win any popularity contests. The question remains: how long until we discover that these same cameras are being hacked by foreign governments to spy on us? Given the amount of tech involved and the wide use of cameras globally, it’s not a huge stretch of the imagination.
For now, these stories remind us that while the rest of us may grumble about traffic cameras, there are always a few who take things way too far. Whether it’s shooting them, stealing them, or speeding away with wild excuses, the war on traffic cameras rages on. We can only hope the robots don’t start fighting back.
