On October 18, 2007, Patrolman Ken Roth ticketed Daniel Freitag for speeding. Pretty normal, right? Well, Roth claimed that he could hear Freitag's Lincoln Navigator speeding. Roth used his highly trained super-sonic hearing to help make the assessment that Freitag was in fact going 42 mph in a 35 mph zone. Freitag has been fighting this ticket in the court system since then, and has just now won his case.

"As it approached I could hear the vehicle on the roadway which based on my training and experience it is consistent with a vehicle that was in excess of the posted speed limit," Roth testified.

"In weighing the evidence and all reasonable inferences and considering the credibility of the witnesses, we conclude that this presents the exceptional case, where the evidence weighs heavily in favor of Freitag," Judge Donna J. Carr wrote for the court. "The weight of the evidence does not support the conclusion that Freitag was exceeding the posted speed limit, specifically because Patrolman Roth's testimony that he audibly and visibly determined that Freitag was speeding is not credible... It is simply incredible, in the absence of reliable scientific, technical, or other specialized information, to believe that one could hear an unidentified vehicle 'speeding' without being able to determine the actual speed of the vehicle."

It's a good thing we all own silent cars here at TIFR. The cyborg officers and their super-hearing will never catch us!

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