Unusual cases that mobilized the police in Switzerland

Last January, the Vaud police rescued a white swan wandering on the A5 motorway, near Yverdon-les-Bains. A veterinary examination revealed that the bird suffered a fractured pelvis. The webfoot was then taken care of by the Erminea wildlife care center in Chavornay. Once his recovery was complete, he was released.

In Neuchâtel, a car tore off a hydrant on December 14 after leaving the road. This caused a jet of water about thirty meters high. The jet was so strong that the water supplier Viteos had to partially shut down the water network to restore the situation.

One Sunday in October, four goats jumped on the bus to return from a walk in the canton of Schaffhausen. As these unusual passengers did not want to get out of the vehicle, the driver called the police. With the help of firefighters, they were finally returned to their owner.

A radar installed at the beginning of July on Avenue de l'Elysée in Lausanne flashed more than 7,500 vehicles in a few days. The Municipality has decided to cancel the fines, because motorists were flashed in the city's first “zone 30 on axis”, i.e. a section limited to 30 km/h on a road intended for general traffic.

Given the exceptionally large number of offenses committed, the Municipality concluded that the signage was not visible enough and that users had not understood that Avenue de l'Elysée was now limited to 30 km/h. In addition, following a technical problem, two out of three speed indicators still displayed a green smiling smiley face up to 50 km/h for several days.

Great commotion in a Zurich building: a naked man was seen on the stairs of the building. An exhibitionist? Police discovered the man had his laundry day. He had apparently decided to put all the clothes he was wearing in the washing machine.

A sofa caught fire in June on the deck of a van on the A1 motorway. The fire was caused by a cigarette butt thrown from the driver's cabin, according to the St. Gallen cantonal police. The driver had stopped on the hard shoulder near Henau (SG) and pushed the sofa onto the grassy strip next to the motorway. Firefighters were finally able to put out the flames.

A bear-shaped balloon caused a major intervention on the Rhine on January 11 in Basel. Informed of the presence of an unidentified object on the river, three fire boats and one from the cantonal police arrived on the scene. Police and an ambulance were also present on the shore. Twenty minutes after the alert, the patrol was able to reassure everyone: it was only a teddy bear-shaped balloon.

In Vevey (VD), on October 18, a person who was cooking with a blowtorch fainted after being poisoned by gas. Five firefighters had to secure the apartment and ventilate it. The victim had to be airlifted to hospital.