By Theresa Braine
New York Daily News
A trash-talking turkey persuaded a cop to rip up the speeding ticket he was about to give a motorist, haranguing the officer until he simply gave up.
It was all caught on bodycam Wednesday, and police in Livermore, Calif., turned it into a real-time meme.
The scene opens as the officer stops at the curb on his motorcycle and saunters up to the car he has just pulled over.
“Hi, I stopped you for your speed right over here,” he says amicably to the occupant, whose face isn’t visible but who can be heard saying, “Okay.”
As the cop makes his way back to his motorcycle, he’s suddenly confronted by a turkey, in full plumage, staring at him accusingly, gobbling away.
Next we see the officer walking back toward the car and handing the driver his paperwork.
The accusatory avian cuts a wide circle around the cop via the passenger side of the car, locking eyes with the officer as it continues to lecture him.
The officer dodges and weaves, flummoxed, as the turkey gets in his face at every turn.
“I’m not coming over there near you,” he tells the browbeating bird.
“He doesn’t want you to get a ticket,” he tells the driver. A chuckle comes from inside the car.
The turkey disappears briefly and the cop gingerly walks back to his bike as the car drives away, ticketless. But the fussy fowl is waiting, still on the case.
“No Ticket Turkey helped out this speeding driver this Thanksgiving,” the police department tweeted with the video, put together like a thriller movie complete with soundtrack.
The cowed cop finally escapes, pulling away with the cry, “He’s vicious!”