Coronavirus restrictions: Group of men caught eating pizza in car filmed arguing with police
A group of men who were allegedly caught sitting in their car eating pizza over the weekend have been filmed in a fiery exchange with police.
A group of men have been caught out by new coronavirus restrictions after police saw them sitting in a car together eating pizza over the weekend.
The group of four was caught in Condell Park in southwest Sydney on Saturday afternoon when they were spotted by police, who moved in to break up the gathering.
But the incident escalated as more than 10 officers attended the scene, and one of the men was handcuffed and began arguing with officers.
“Look at what youse have done to me, and for what?” one of the men — handcuffed and sitting on a driveway — yelled at police during the exchange, which was filmed and posted online.
Police across the country cracked down on Aussies flouting social distancing restrictions over the Easter long weekend, and issued on-the-spot fines to more than 100 people in NSW alone on Saturday.
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“We’re sitting down eating and the f***ing dogs came for no reason,” one of the men says during the lengthy exchange.
“Under the legislation of this country, I’m entitled to say whatever I want, to whoever I want,” another of the men tells the officers.
Two Milperra men, aged 22 and 26, were fined $1000 each for failing to comply with a public health order, according to a statement from NSW Police. Police also fined an older man at the scene for using offensive language.
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NSW Police issued a total of 111 fines in 24 hours over Good Friday and Easter Saturday.
Recipients of the fines included a Darlinghurst woman, 25, who was spotted by police at Copacabana Beach on the Central Coast on Saturday. She told police she was watching her boyfriend surfing and was fined $1000.
Police also went to the remote village of Sandon in the Northern Rivers region on Saturday after being told a husband and wife had arrived there for the Easter break.
A man, 53, and his wife, 51, told police they’d been in the area for two weeks. But police found they’d only arrived two days beforehand. They were both fined $1000 and told to return home to Lennox Head.
Police said they also had to speak with another couple and their two children, and tell them to return to their home in Petersham in Sydney’s inner west.
Police also had to move on four people who they spotted sitting on a park bench at Maroubra Junction on Saturday afternoon.
After conducting checks they found all four members of the group, three men, 33, 45 and 55, and a woman, 32, had previously been warned about following social distancing orders.
They were told they’d be fined and moved on from the area according to NSW Police.
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