Man fined $253 for beeping his horn goodbye to mate outside Port Adelaide pizza bar
An Adelaide man was fined $253 for beeping his horn to say goodbye to his mate after creating the perfect “burger pizza” flavour together.
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An Adelaide man has been fined $253 for beeping his horn as he said goodbye to his friend in Port Adelaide after perfecting a new pizza flavour.
Jamie Wimmer temporarily closed his Grange restaurant, Beefcakes and Shakes, for renovations during the coronavirus pandemic and began working with his friend Rob at Port Pizza Bar.
He and his friend spent weeks perfecting a new “burger pizza” – and, on June 16, they finally cracked the perfect flavour composition.
“We were using my beefcake sauce, which is like a secret sauce we have, and we finally got it right,” he said.
An excited Mr Wimmer said to his friend, “I’ll be back next week with more sauce,” and hopped into his car.
“I left and I beeped maybe two or three times, like you do when you say goodbye to someone,” Mr Wimmer said.
“My grandad taught me this – I said ‘See ya, bro, beep beep’.”
It was at this point a police officer in an unmarked car pulled over Mr Wimmer and issued him a $253 fine.
Mr Wimmer was left baffled by the fine, which is due on July 17. The reason for the fine is: “Use of horn when not permitted to do so”.
He said $5 of every burger pizza would go to men’s mental-health charities when the creation had come to fruition.
An SA Police spokeswoman would not comment on the individual expiation but said a vehicle’s horn must be used only as a warning device.
The spokeswoman said any driver who received an expiation notice had the option to either pay the fine, nominate another driver if they were not behind the wheel at the time, request a review or go to court.
Australian Road Rules legislation says a driver must not use the horn unless it is to warn other road users or animals of the vehicle’s position.
It also can be legally used as part of an anti-theft device, or an alcohol interlock device.
SA Police figures show that 20 drivers were fined and a further 30 were cautioned for illegally using their horn in the 2018-19 financial year.
Mr Wimmer believes Australia has “very strict rules on everything”.
He said the police officer who pulled him over was in an unmarked car.
“These undercover cars should be illegal because they use them to give out fines – they use them to revenue-raise,” he claimed.
Mr Wimmer wrote on Instagram the wording of the fine was “a little sketchy”.