You simply can’t beat a cold treat on a hot summer day. Stopping by an ice cream parlor for a heaping cone can be about as refreshing as a tall glass of water, but generally, that’s a destination worth walking or driving to—not flying.
Apparently, a Canadian man didn’t get that memo when he decided to visit a Saskatchewan Dairy Queen in his helicopter.
On July 31, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were called to a parking lot near the Dairy Queen in Tisdale, Saskatchewan. According to the received complaint, a helicopter had landed in the middle of what is described as a “high traffic parking lot,” kicking up dust and debris as it landed. The parking lot—which belonged to the town’s middle and high schools—was reportedly empty when the pilot landed, likely because it was a summer Saturday.
After the chopper landed, a female passenger exited and picked up an ice cream cake from the Dairy Queen.
The whole event was witnessed by the mayor of Tisdale, Al Jellicoe. He jokingly told CBC that he “thought somebody must be hungry,” but eventually decided that it was “probably not the right thing to do.”
Eventually, the RCMP received a complaint about the incident and launched an investigation. They determined that a 34-year-old man from Leroy, Saskatchewan—which is roughly 60 miles from the Tisdale restaurant—was flying the aircraft at the time of the incident. They charged him with one count of dangerous operation of an aircraft on Aug. 11. The man was licensed to fly the aircraft, but is still due in court next month since the landing was non-emergency, and therefore illegal under Canadian law.
This isn’t the first time something like this has happened up north. Back in 2009, a pilot set his military-owned CH-146 Griffon helicopter down on a baseball field in Ontario and ordered takeout from an A&W fast food joint. The police were also called out for similar behavior by a Twitter commenter. They posted a video of an RCMP helicopter landing in a field near a takeout restaurant in Alberta, claiming that the occupants landed just to pick up burgers.
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