Encyclopedia got a mysterious phone call from someone telling them to meet them out by the old cattle range at ten in the morning. He and Sally thought it was suspicious, as this was a method Bugs has constantly used in his ill-thought-out plans to get them to the scene of some crime, but they showed up anyway.
With the exception of a few birds on the power lines, it looked as if the two detectives were the only living creatures around. There wasn’t much to look at out there except for the used firecrackers that littered the area.
After a few minutes of waiting, a police car was seen driving down the road. The car stopped beside the two. When Officer Friedman came out of the car, Bugs emerged from some nearby bushes asking the officer if he had heard a noise. He explained that Encyclopedia and Sally had just set off a firecracker just as he was driving up, but he conceded that Friedman may not have heard it because he was giving his position over the radio.
Friedman said that the station got a report that a boy and girl had been setting off firecrackers at that location the previous evening and were planning on doing it again at 10 a.m. the next day. Bugs told everyone that he was the one who had called the police, because he and his Tigers are only concerned with making sure the laws of upheld.
Friedman, apparently completely clueless to Bugs’ past, told Encyclopedia and Sally that he was going to have to report that.
Sally, in a moment of desperation and frustration, pointed up to the birds sitting on the power lines and bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t talk, because they saw the whole thing and could tell the officer that Bugs was lying. Encyclopedia said that they didn’t need to speak, because they had done plenty for their defense.
If Encyclopedia and Sally had just set off a firecracker, those birds would have flown away, so there went Bugs’ claim.
But even if the birds had not been there, this is still a very poorly-executed scheme by Bugs. In order to claim that Encyclopedia or Sally had been setting off fireworks, Bugs would have to assume that one of them had been carrying matches or a lighter. Since neither of them had a weird smoking habit, that wouldn’t have been likely.
Even if they did had matches, there still isn’t any evidence to prove that they had set off any firecrackers. If Friedman didn’t hear the firecracker go off, then he didn’t any of it. Friedman should be suspicious about the idea of about not hearing the firecracker that Bugs had said had been just set off. If he had been busy talking on the radio, he still would have been able to hear a firecracker going off.
So now, we have a police officer responding to a call about firecrackers going off, and it’s been shown that Encyclopedia and Sally were innocent. Who did set off those fireworks? Did Bugs do it?
If that’s the case, not only did his plan not get Encyclopedia and Sally in trouble, but he also alerted the police of the fact that he had broken the law.
I suppose we don’t have enough evidence to prove that Bugs was the one who set the firecrackers off. There is the possibility that Bugs happened to be in the area and noticed that someone had set off a bunch of firecrackers and his first thought was, “I should totally blame Encyclopedia and Sally for this,” and then got that wheel going.
Either way, this was another case of Bugs giving a fake report to the police, which is probably a more serious offense than setting off firecrackers.
