Australian man threatens to shoot down chopper with tomato-bazooka

November 23, 2005 Southport Magistrates' Court was told today that Anthony Douglas Donohue, 34 was so annoyed by a helicopter hovering over his home that he telephoned Air Services Australia with a threatening message yesterday.

Donohue allegedly threatened to blow the chopper out of the sky using a home-made bazooka loaded with tomatoes. Police swung into action searching Donohue's Queensland home. A police spokesperson stated that such situations were taken "very seriously", although no weapons had been found. "Fruit is hardly a weapon of mass terror," Donohue's solicitor Bill Potts said.

Mr Donohue is charged with two counts of threatening to endanger the safety of an aircraft and the case will go to court next month.