We received a (brand new) reader tip today about the type of lunatics that work maintenance for Redflex’s flashing scamera box system in Phoenix. 

You may remember the scamera tech who was caught in Paradise Valley, AZ smoking while standing on a ladder working on the exposed electronics inside the metal housing.

Today’s event tops that level of incompetence and is a bit of an alarming tale. Here’s the accounting of the what transpired in the Redflex scamera monitored intersection of 12th Street and Camelback Road in Phoenix.

While pulling up to the intersection at Camelback and 12th St, I observed a man standing on a ladder reaching in to the open back panel of a red light photo cam. Like most people, I’m not fond of the cameras and am unsure about who is responsible for this scam. I took a closer look to see if I could identify who he worked for.

I had also noticed that his ladder was askew with nobody holding the base of it while birds were aggressively swooping into his perilous work space. I couldn’t resist but honk and sarcastically wave my finger at him to mock his complete disregard for his own safety. Frankly his profession as a contractor for a fraudulent company that exists on profits from glorified parking meters added to my amusement.

My gesture was the equivalent of a “Tsk Tsk,” but his inferiority complex must have really gotten the better of him. To say he went on a tirade would be quite an understatement.

After throwing a a hissy fit while still standing on his unsecured latter, he dismounted and approached me in deliberately slow manner as if we were about to reenact a scene from Tombstone.

I wish I had been recording his rant, but to hit the highlights, the following statements were directed to me by the (Redflex) employee:

“I could call the authorities on you.”

“You’re acting like a terrorist”

“You could be a terrorist”

At that point I asked him which company he worked for and he said, “It’s a free country, I don’t have to tell you and it’s for your safety.”

I couldn’t control my laughter and rolled my window back up just as the traffic signal was turning green. I returned to that intersection after running my errand to the nearby Walgreens. I had grabbed a little pamphlet on anger management on my way out the door to deliver to the unstable little tyrant, but he had apparently finished whatever maintenance was being performedand took off.

After a little research when I went home, I found this site and determined that it’s Redflex who employs this person. If somebody could obtain their employee manual, it would be interesting to find the portion where they describe what potential terrorists look like.

I figured your readers would get a kick out of this story, but also let this be a little warning - honking and finger wagging are now “terrorist” activities in Phoenix.

It would be a little unfair to speculate about employee morale at Redflex based on one crazed lunatic whose job it is to calibrate their equipment every so often. However, maybe it’s time for a nice relaxing team trip to company HQ in Australia, or even better - why not just let the sworn Phoenix police officers handle traffic tickets? Then these disgruntled scamera techs can move on up to a career with the TSA where they can look for Al Qaeda inside of journalist’s iPads.

In case you’re curious, here’s a picture the alleged terrorist she sent along with her story:

The can of Squirt clearly indicates the woman is a terrorist of some type.