An Australian writer-and paraglider-tried landing in front of Buckingham Palace last December to help him land a publishing deal.
In what looked like a scene from a James Bond movie, the paraglider, 36-year-old Brett de laMare, was followed through the skies of central London by a police helicopter as he headed toward the palace-the London home of Queen Elizabeth II.
The royal family was not present at the time, but police took the incident seriously, all the same. The helicopter tried to force the paraglider away, but in the end, he succeeded in landing on the palace grounds. Police there promptly arrested him.
This was no terrorist, however, as Police had feared. He was, rather, a writer trying to gainpublicity to help publish a book, called “Canine Dawn”. Unable to get publishers interested in the book, he tried some new ways to get attention.
After the incident, de la Mare explained what happened to reporters. "I came in over the fence, and I landed in the forecourt here, and the crowd started cheering. And I was arrested and dragged off." De la Mare said police had difficulty deciding what to charge him with: "They initially… they arrested me for attempted burglary.. of ...Buckingham Palace... and of course, they dropped that. I mean, attempted burglary! I mean, it's hardly a discreet method of burglary..." They later charged him with breaches of the Air Navigation Order.
De la Mare left a humorous message on his cell phone for callers: "Hi, this is Brett. I'm sorry you missed me. I am incarcerated right now or something. Please leave me a message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I am free."
