Cops ketchup with Wienermobile

By DALE QUINN
Arizona Daily Star

TUCSON, Ariz. _ Cops everywhere can rest a little easier now -- there's no longer a need to be on the lookout for a hot Wienermobile.

Oscar Mayer's super-sized fiberglass hot dog on a bun was pulled over Wednesday morning.

Blame a few bad keystrokes rather than the munchies for the unscheduled stop.

A bad computer entry mistakenly showed that the Wienermobile was sporting a stolen license plate, prompting an officer in an unmarked car to pull the dog over, said Officer Carmen Figueroa, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Safety.

A DPS officer in a marked patrol car and another on a motorcycle came by to get a closer look at the unusual stop.

An officer called the police agency that made the computer entry, talked with the Columbia Police Department in Wisconsin and learned that the entry should have read that the license plate had been stolen if it was on any vehicle that isn't a giant hot dog.

The Wienermobile -- with a Wisconsin license plate reading "YUMMY" -- was allowed to go about its business.

The state DPS was changing the computer entry so the Wienermobile and its driver can avoid future entanglements with the law, Figueroa said.

(Contact reporter Dale Quinn at dquinn@azstarnet.com.)