A Worthington, Pennsylvania speed trap on Route 422 shut down Saturday evening after an essential piece of timing equipment went missing. The policeman running the trap realized a $2000 laser reflector had disappeared in the time it took him to write a ticket. Police have no leads on where the reflector might be.

"It's only a matter of time before someone brags about it and the information gets back to us," Worthington Police Chief Greg Koprivnak told the Leader Times. "When caught, the person will be facing felony theft charges."

Pennsylvania's legislature has made it illegal for local police to use radar or lidar guns to measure speed, fearing the devices would merely be used to raise revenue. Local police have responded by using devices such as ESP, Accutrak and Enradd which are sophisticated versions of the old stopwatch method of calculating speed. A timer starts as soon as a vehicle crosses a light beam and stops after passing a second beam a known distance apart. From this, the device quickly calculates the vehicle's average speed.

The speed limit on Route 422 is a 55 MPH road except in Worthington where it slows to 45 MPH.