[Rhodes22-list] Say it ain't so. (Humorous)

[R22RumRunner at aol.com]

MADISON — Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer ... car thief?  
That’s what an Arizona Highway Patrol officer was wondering when he spotted  
the iconic Wienermobile rumbling along with plates that came back as  stolen.

The Wienermobile was on the road for a promotion in which  contestants sing 
the Oscar Mayer jingle for a shot at appearing in a commercial  and winning “
American Idol” tickets.

The 27-foot-long, 11-foot-tall hot  dog on wheels was in a construction zone 
on Interstate 10 in downtown Tucson  Wednesday morning, slowing traffic. 
Officer Korey Lankow caught up to it and ran  its YUMMY license plate to make sure 
it was street legal.

YUMMY came back  as stolen.

Lankow pulled over the Wienermobile, and two more officers  arrived to help.

It turns out someone had indeed stolen the YUMMY plate  off the Wienermobile 
in Columbia, Mo., back in February.

Oscar Mayer  officials reported the theft to police there, company 
spokeswoman Syd Lindner  said. The company got a replacement YUMMY plate that same month 
and notified  police in Missouri, Lindner said.

But the plate still came back as stolen  Wednesday, with no note that it was 
OK if found on Wienermobile itself.

A  message left with the Columbia Police Department wasn’t returned.

Jeff  Kendell, 23, of Salt Lake City, was a passenger — or “hot dogger” in 
Oscar Mayer  lingo — in the rolling wiener.

“We knew we weren’t doing anything wrong,”  Kendell said. “We figured they 
were just pulling us over to check  something.”

Not missing a beat, Kendell handed out wiener whistles to the  officers, who 
took a peek inside the Wienermobile and snapped pictures with  digital cameras.

Arizona Highway Patrol spokesman Quent Mehr said Lankow  is hearing plenty 
about it from his buddies.

“The officer, he’s just  like, ’I don’t believe this is happening,“’ Mehr 
said.

The Wienermobile  first hit the road in 1936. Madison-based Oscar Mayer 
currently runs six  Wienermobiles, said Ed Roland, the company’s mobile marketing 
manager.  





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