Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Ice cream headache

Damn, what are they putting in their ice cream down in Australia? I ask because in a recent alcohol-related court case, a frosty treat proved to be the pivotal evidence:
The man, whose name was not given, had asked Frankston Magistrates' Court to remove the breath testing alcohol interlock device from his car, the (Melbourne, Australia) Daily Sun reported Tuesday.

Prosecutors inquired why the machine had registered a "fail," which prevents the car from starting, despite the man's claims that he had not been drinking.

The man claimed the alcohol reading was the result of eating a Bubble O' Bill ice cream treat and Magistrate Rod Crisp ordered a test to be performed to back up the claim. Police recorded the man's blood alcohol content as 0.00 and performed the test a second time after he took a few bites of Bubble O' Bill, yielding a 0.018 reading.

Crisp granted the man's request to remove the breath testing device from his car.
The article goes on to explain that eating some foods before taking a breath test can create a false positive. I'm guessing Foster's-flavored ice cream is one of them.

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