A marathon runner had a close call with the police this weekend when they pulled him over for running with a fridge on his back. The runner, who is in training for the London marathon, said the police let him go when the realized it was an extreme training tool.
"It ended with them shaking my hand," says Daniel Fairbrother in an interview with the BBC.
He explains that it was his second time running with the fridge, which he's doing to try to raise £10,000 ($12,600) for Diabetes UK in support of his best friend, a Type 1 diabetic.
"I tried to undertake a challenge last year which didn’t go as planned, and I promised to come back bigger and stronger."
Running and hiking with a weighted backpack, known as rucking, is a common training tool, but strapping a fridge on your back is considerably more unorthodox. During his run in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, Fairbrother noticed a police car turning around and blue flashing lights.
Realizing that local police might have assumed that he was in the process of stealing the appliance, Fairbrother explained what he was doing, and luckily the officer saw the funny side.
“He said ‘You do know if you order from Currys, they will deliver it for you?’”
Fairbrother, who reveals he has named the fridge Tallulah after the sled in the movie Cool Runnings, says he understands why the police had to stop him for employing such a unusual tactic.
“I would expect the police to do their job and check on someone running about with a fridge. If I got pulled over another 10 times I wouldn’t be annoyed.”
