Car-molesting radar menaces Norfolk

Black helicopters hover over East Anglia

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Science, 28th February 2006 13:51 GMT

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Around 18 months go we carried the chilling report of Eglin Air Force base in Florida and its Motorola garage door jamming system - a radio set-up which locked said portals, much to the chagrin of local residents.

Of course, this being the US, the Air Force denied all responsibility and presumably sent out some unmarked black Humvees to deal with persistent civilian agitators.

In the UK, though, where rubbing people's memories with alien technology found among the wreckage at Roswell is rather frowned upon, the powers that be have instead decided to investigate a car-molesting radar dome which has allegedly caused passing motorists to suffer engine and light failures and wildly fluctuating speedometers.

According to the BBC, former RAF radar operator Neil Crayford, who has a garage near Trimingham radar unit, claimed that "30 car owners had reported problems" in the last two months. Crayford explained how "one night his own car's headlights and dashboard cut out for a few seconds as he drove past the dome in convoy with a colleague, who suffered the same fate".

Crayford added: "Something must have changed - either the frequency or output - for this to happen. I lodged an official complaint with the MoD two weeks ago, but incidents are still happening. We get about five a week, and had three more on Friday."

An MoD spokeswoman admitted to the Beeb: "We are aware of claims that the remote radar head may be interfering with car immobilisers and we are investigating. There are other users outside the military that operate on the same frequency as the radar, but there is a possibility we could be causing some problems with cars." ®