Local Cop Tracks Panther to Sunrise Lair

Flickr: empty_netters

Rare footage of a "Panther" -- David Booth -- in his natural habitat.

​According to a sports website, ESPN.com, there is a hockey team in South Florida. Presumably, the "Panthers" are so named because they're a rarely seen threatened species. In fact, according to ESPN, the Panthers' biggest star -- winger David Booth -- is practically invisible when he drives around Broward County. Booth told ESPN:

"I don't get recognized anywhere, not in Florida, not in my hometown," he said, chuckling.

Ah, but that's not totally true. There was that one day last season in Sunrise, Fla.

"I remember getting on the freeway -- it's a 10-mile drive to the rink -- and there was a cop behind me the whole way," Booth said. "I couldn't figure out why, because I hadn't done anything wrong. Then, we stop at a light, he comes out and comes over to me and says, 'Are you David Booth?' I don't know if it's because I had a Michigan plate on. But he says, 'OK, good luck tonight.' I wish I had taken his number, so I could get out of trouble."

The Panthers' season starts tomorrow at noon local time with a game against the Blackhawks in Helsinki, Finland -- a location so far away from South Florida there's a chance that the stadium will sell out.

Catch Panthers fever -- now with less vomit than the swine flu!