How an English grandmother made speeders' hair stand on end

An elderly woman in England was so sick of it, in fact, that she took to impersonating a traffic cop to slow traffic on her street. Though she does not resemble a traffic cop, hilariously enough, her plan worked.

According to the Nottingham Post, Jean Brooks of Nottinghamshire, UK, took up her crusade shortly after a family tragedy. She told the Post that after her son-in-law passed away, she threw herself into charity work with Marie Curie Cancer Care – specifically by raising money with a front-yard cafe. As she spent more time outside, she noticed an inordinate number of punks on motorbikes speeding up and down her street.
"This street is the main road onto the estate, so it is busy, and it's also used as a school dropoff point," Brooks told the Post. "They come up on their scooters and quad bikes showing off to the sixth-form girls, acting like a male bird of paradise."

"It's all, 'Look, no hands,' but it will soon be 'Look, no teeth," she added.

Fed up with the hooligans, and wanting to protect her neighbors, Brooks lit upon a great idea. She grabbed a hair dryer, stood in her front yard, and pointed it at oncoming traffic. Surprisingly, it worked like a charm.

"Quite simply, by picking up one of these and going like that, I have never seen so many people's brake lights go on - and all it is, is a hairdryer," she told the BBC.

A video of her escapades shot by a BBC film crew blew up the internet when the Beeb published it on June 2. In just a short time, the video had 12 million views and made Brooks into an internet sensation.

"If they don't like it, that's tough," she said in the video. "I live here, my friends live here, my friends' children live here, and if we can't be safe in our own street, where the hell are we going to be safe in the world?"

Where indeed, grandma? Where indeed?

Now, this isn't the first time a community has turned to using hair dryers as radar guns. Not even the first time in the UK. Back in February, citizens of a Scottish seaside town put on high-visibility vests, grabbed some hair dryers, and pointed them at speeding cars to trick drivers into slowing down.