11 Chaser crew held over APEC stunt
AAP
By Warwick Stanley
September 06, 2007 03:22pm
ELEVEN crew from the ABC TV comedy show The Chaser have been detained by police after staging a fake motorcade through Sydney as part of an APEC week stunt.
The team from the satirical TV program The Chaser's War on Everything were in a convoy of three cars and two motorbikes which was reportedly ushered through two checkpoints in Sydney's APEC security "red" zone.
The convoy was pulled over in Macquarie Street on a block adjacent to the InterContinental Hotel, where US President George W Bush is a guest during the APEC summit.
The ABC said Chaser stars Julian Morrow and Chas Licciardello were detained late this morning following the stunt near the hotel.
Chaser members said they had dressed up a convoy to look like an official Canadian motorcade, on a day during which a number of official motorcades crossed the city.
Southern Cross radio reported that the convoy carrying the Chaser team passed "through two checkpoints around the hotel before one of the Chaser pranksters jumped out (dressed) as Osama Bin Laden".
"They had been waved through, they had three cars ... big black Hummer-style cars decked out with Canadian flags on the front," a reporter said.
"A couple of Chaser team members were in the back of each of these cars and rest of the team were dressed up as bodyguards.
"As many as 11 people were detained and two of those were Chaser team members."
Chaser team member Chris Taylor told a Fairfax website the motorcade comprised "three cars, a couple of motorbikes, and a lot of crew".
He said the Chaser convoy had Canadian flags attached to the cars and "Canada" signs visible in the front windscreen.
"No particular reason we chose Canada," Taylor said.
"We just thought they'd be a country who the cops wouldn't scrutinise too closely, and who feasibly would only have three cars in their motorcade - as opposed to the 20 or so gas guzzlers that Bush has brought with him."
He said the motorcade had been allowed into the red zone, past two sets of gates, before being pulled over on the corner of Bridge and Macquarie streets.
Taylor said Morrow and Licciardello had been taken to Surry Hills police station, and police confirmed the pair had been arrested for breaching the restricted zone.
Chaser crew members had initially been detained in their cars while "police on the ground" waited for special units to arrive, Taylor said.
ABC spokesman Peter Ritchie said ABC lawyers and management were in discussions with police.
"They were shooting for the program, they were at the hotel, police detained them and ABC lawyers and management are with the boys," Mr Ritchie said.
Southern Cross radio said "security services went crazy when they realised something had gone wrong".
"They very quickly detained these people," a reporter said.
Authorities have warned there will be a presumption against bail for people arrested in the APEC security zone.
"The simple message that everybody needs to understand is that if you misconduct yourself during the APEC period in a security zone, there is a jail bed waiting for you," Attorney-General John Hatzistergos said last week.
The Chaser's War on Everything resumed on ABC TV last night and included a number of stunts aimed at testing APEC security.
Morrow told News Ltd last weekend the Chaser team was planning something "extreme" for APEC.
Chaser team members yesterday staged a stunt during an anti-APEC protest, with Taylor appearing as a police officer on a pantomime horse - a dig at the fact equine flu has prevented NSW police horses being used for APEC security.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22372709-5005961,00.html
