Woman uses hair dryer to slow speeding drivers, becomes honorary trooper

Dinorah Prevost
Tampa Bay Times

MISSOULA, Mont. — Patti Baumgartner wanted drivers to stop speeding and slow down in her Montana neighborhood so she took action herself.

A photo of the mother and grandmother sitting on the side of the road using a hair dryer as a fake radar gun went viral on social media, Missoula, Mont., TV station KPAX reported.

“They forget to slow down, and there are a lot of people that are complaining about that they can’t walk or ride their bikes. I wouldn’t even attempt riding a bike around,” Baumgartner told KPAX. “We were talking about maybe something would slow the cars down. So, we decided to put me in a chair and I guess use the hair dryer as a speed thing,” she said.

Montana state trooper Noah Pesola caught wind of a tweet from Baumgartner’s son with the photo and made the grandmother an honorary trooper.

"The best thing I could think of was (to) give her a trooper hat and a badge to make her look a little more official,” he said.