Don't Drink and Dial

On his drive home from one round after another of alcoholic merriment, a 31-year-old German man was befallen by a blow-out. Rather than change the tyre himself, he decided to keep his hands clean and leave the dirty work to the breakdown services.

The jolly civil servant, who had a blood alcohol level seven times that of the legally allowed limit, had his license taken away eight years ago, and was driving a borrowed car, dialled what he believed to be the number of roadside assistance, and blurted out his tiddled tale.

"My car is broken and I need you to come and fix it," he said. "And you'd better be quick because I'm really pretty drunk and I don't have a licence so it wouldn't be good if the cops drove past."

It wasn't until he was done with his inebriated rant that he realised he was not talking to a breakdown service at all, but to none other than the police from whom he was so keen to hide.

"He wanted us to come quickly, so we did," said a police spokesman in the western town of Monheim.