I once had a fellow charged with driving straight through a stop sign, with not so much as a pause, testify before me. His story was that he had a peregrine falcon on his shoulder at the time. The bird had some sort of leather hat pulled down over its head, which was supposed to prevent it from seeing. According to the birder's testimony, the hood must have slipped, such that the bird could see, whereupon it latched onto his ear (at which point in the story he approached the bench to show me the notch in his ear) and would not let go. His attention was on anything but the stop sign through which he passed without slowing. The story was so fantastic that I believed it; fantastic stories often turn out to be true.