June 19, 2026
Peel pulled over... again
Giant Banana Pulled over in Montana Driver Says Cops Have Stopped Him 100s Times
Even the internet can’t decide if this is harmless fun, cop bait, or the most wholesome chaos on wheels
TLDR: A man driving a giant banana car was stopped in Montana again, adding to years of police pulling him over mostly because, well, it’s a giant banana. Commenters split between calling it joyful public comedy, saying cops are overdoing it, and joking that no criminal mastermind would pick fruit as a getaway vehicle.
America’s most suspicious fruit is back in the spotlight after Steve Braithwaite’s 23-foot banana car got pulled over yet again in Montana — and the internet instantly made it about everything. Yes, the stop was reportedly about the license plate and no, he didn’t get a ticket. But in the comments, this became a full-on debate about whether driving a giant banana is a public service, an invitation to trouble, or both. One camp was basically: who would commit crimes in a banana? As one commenter joked, the odds of a criminal choosing this as a getaway car seem hilariously low. Another person argued the opposite: a giant homemade fruit-mobile probably does invite questions about safety and mechanical issues.
Then the mood swerved hard. Some readers saw the repeated stops as less funny and more unsettling, saying the real story is how often police feel free to stop someone for being weird in public. That turned the thread from goofy to grim for a moment, with fears that one traffic stop could go badly. And yet, others refused to let the vibes rot. They rallied around the banana as a symbol of pure whimsy in a painfully serious world, cheering the chaos and demanding more nonsense on the roads. The jokes were nonstop too, from calling the headline a “crash blossom” to roasting the driver with, “Obtain a vehicle that commands attention. Enjoy everyone’s attention!” In other words: the banana rolled by, and the comments absolutely peeled out
Key Points
- •Steve Braithwaite’s 23-foot-long Big Banana Car was pulled over in Billings, Montana, over a license plate issue, but no ticket was issued.
- •Braithwaite said he has been stopped repeatedly by police while driving the vehicle over 15 years and more than 250,000 miles.
- •He said many stops appeared to be motivated by officers wanting photos or conversation rather than serious violations.
- •Braithwaite said he got the idea for the banana car in 2008 after watching Top Gear and then noticing the shape of a banana in a gas station.
- •The custom banana-bodied vehicle became Braithwaite’s daily driver and has experienced long-distance travel, including a breakdown in Wyoming while he was en route to Los Angeles.