A lively night on the town last fall has turned an Alberta man into an Internet celebrity, thanks to video of him belting out a Queen classic in the backseat of a police car.
Robert Wilkinson, 29, was arrested sometime in the fall in Edson, Alta., about 200 kilometres west of Edmonton. The RCMP officer had pulled over a white pickup truck that was swerving on a dark, snow-covered road.
In a ten-minute video first posted on YouTube in early March, a man with shaggy, dark hair and a sizeable beard can be seen stumbling slightly as he gets out of the vehicle. He becomes audible once he gets into the car, where he immediately launches into what could be considered a rant, criticizing the arresting officer and "the system."
"You don't see the crime in what you're doing," Wilkinson, 29, tells the officer.
"What this has to do with is brotherhood of man on the planet Earth."
The two men appear to know each other, exchanging comments that imply they have met before.
Musical performance
What happens next is a musical performance fit for the police-cruiser record books. Wilkinson launches into a full performance of Queen's emblematic, six-minute hit "Bohemian Rhapsody," squeezing eyes closed while emphasizing the melancholy lyrics with dramatic hand gestures.
During the song's musical interludes, Wilkinson mimics the sound of Brian May's legendary guitar riffs, then returning to Freddie Mercury's lyrics with seemingly endless gusto.
At one point, the officer suggests Wilkinson calm down, to which he replies, "I can't!"
Wilkinson then goes for a big finish, ending his version of the rock and roll classic with the substituted lyric, "Nothing really matters -- even the RCMP."
Wilkinson was later charged with impaired driving and refusing a breathalyzer test. The video was provided to him among the evidence for his upcoming trial.
The grainy video appears to be from a police car camera, although the RCMP said they weren't responsible for leaking the footage.
With files from The Canadian Press
