A GOOD story deserves a good airing. What follows was spotted in Bike magazine, which had spotted it in Pilot magazine.

Two members of the Lothian and Borders traffic police were recently having a pleasant time out on the Scottish moors, trapping speeding motorists with a radar gun.

Suddenly their equipment went crazy, registering a speed of over 300 miles per hour. It then locked up completely.

Seconds later the startled boys in blue understood why, as a low-flying Harrier jet screamed over their heads. Upset that their radar gun had been broken, the policemen put in a complaint to the Royal Air Force-only to discover that the damage could easily have been much worse.

The RAF informed them that the Harrier's target-seeker had locked on to what it had interpreted as enemy radar. This immediately triggered an automatic air-to-surface missile attack. Fortunately for the two policemen, the Harrier was operating unarmed.