Cops and Courts

Police responded to a report of “snowball activity” late Monday afternoon in the vicinity of North Russell Street and Turner Street. The suspects were warned and released.

I don’t know the details of this particular incident, but in my experience a complainant calls police with a report of “snowball activity” when the snowball-chuckers are beaning passersby or motorists, or are drilling Mrs. Parker’s picture window with an especially hard-packed caliber of snow.

There is, of course, always the hair-raising possibility that some poor soul was struck in the ear by a snowball and a medical response was required, in which case the snow-slinger should be led straight to the gallows. Fortunately, that doesn’t appear to have been the case here, and a lone police officer settled the disturbance.

But there exists a far more perilous brand of winter romping that draws a police presence, and we should be thankful today that there have been no recent reports of the fearsome sport known as “hooky-bobbing,” and which I’ve seen dubbed as such in official police reports.

According to urbandictionary.com, “hooky-bobbing” is the act of “hooking or grasping on to the rear bumper of a car or truck when the road is covered in snow and ice. The motorist often doesn’t know the youth is squatted down behind the car hanging on to the rear bumper. The ‘Hooky-Bobber’ gets a free and dangerous ride.”

The entry continues with a list of hazards associated with hooky-bobbing:

“Hooky-Bobbing is mostly for a joy-ride, but can be a way to get home from school. The dangers include inhaling car exhaust; motorists traveling at high rates of speed; rock, gravel, sand and sewer covers in the road that have melted the snow and/or ice resulting in the Hooky-Bobber to be tossed off the rear bumper. Also often times, mittens or gloves get stuck/frozen to the rear bumper.”

It pains me to imagine the kind of devastation that a hooky-bobbing trend might wreak on our fair community.

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