Monday, May 30, 2005

Stag-night stunt sees brothers baring all on A64

Traffic warnings were yesterday broadcast to motorists to be on their guard for two naked men walking down the side of a dual carriageway in Yorkshire.
Instead of looking out for the normal traffic tailbacks on the A64, drivers were told to be on alert for the two hitchhikers displaying a little too much of their modesty.
Darren Williams and his brother, John, were eventually spared their blushes when a patrol car from North Yorkshire Police pulled over and shielded them from passing vehicles.
Darren had been on his stag night with his 21-year-old brother, who will be his best man at the wedding in five weeks, when they were wrestled to the ground by a group of friends and stripped naked in a lay-by near Tadcaster at 9.30am yesterday.
The friends then drove off, leaving the two brothers stranded at the roadside wearing only their socks and shoes.
After walking more than a mile down the side of the dual carriageway, officers in the police patrol car spotted the brothers baring all.
A passing motorist then stopped and gave them a lift home to Bolton-upon-Dearne, South Yorkshire.
Darren, 23, a team leader for an internet company, said: "Rumours started flying around on Saturday that something like this was going to happen, but when we got back to the hotel I thought I had got away with it.
"I had taken precautions like putting money in my sock and I had a taxi firm number in my mobile telephone, but unfortunately they took that off me as well.
"As we were walking along, people were driving past sounding their car horns and waving at us. I have managed to see the funny side of it."
He had travelled to York with a group of 17 friends from the Dearne Valley Bulldogs rugby league side for the stag party around the city's pubs on Saturday.
After being stripped naked, the brothers had begun walking along the side of the A64 in the hope of finding a telephone before police officers arrived.
Darren, who will be flying out to Cyprus to marry Lisa Griffiths, 20, from Barnsley, next month, said: "The police were brilliant, they were laughing along with us.
"They were going to call a police van to take us back to York station so we could make a phone call, but then someone pulled over to give us a lift home. We are extremely grateful to them."
And his bride-to-be also managed to raise a smile when she heard of the ordeal.
She said: "We haven't cancelled any of the wedding invites after what happened, although I might be having a quiet word with some of those who are responsible."