The Human Traffic Cone?

Swansea, Wales, is a city of just under 250,000 people located in the south of the country. (Here’s a map.) Pictured above (via Google Maps Street View) is the intersection of Grove Place and De-La Beche Street in Swansea, and what you’ll notice is, well, not much. The blue-tiled building is a police station, but there’s little for the police to do at that moment—there isn’t even any meaningful traffic.

That might be because when that picture was taken in June 2025, David Hampson was probably behind bars. Otherwise, he may have been there, obstructing traffic.

Hampson, a Welsh native now in his mid fifties, developed an unusual habit (hobby?) in 2014. As Oddity Central wrote, starting in that year, Hampson “has repeatedly hindered traffic by standing in the middle of the road, in the exact same spot.” That’s illegal, as you may have guessed, and it’s not so hard for the cops to take note given that they work on the same block. So Hampson has found himself on the wrong side of the law a dozen times. As a repeat offender, the courts are often harsh on him; for example, in 2018, he was sentenced to three years in prison for obstructing traffic. And that lengthy sentence didn’t deter him. He’s continued on with the practice since, even immediately after being given a warning. Here’s how the Telegraph summarized an incident from earlier this year:

Sam Jenkins, prosecuting, said firearms officers spoke to the defendant when he was seen on April 8.

He said: “The officers escorted the defendant off the road and warned him that if he repeated the behavior, he would be arrested.”

Just minutes later, he was seen again and was arrested before being bailed.

Hampson returned the next day to do the same thing and was arrested and kept in custody.

For that transgression, Hampson was sentenced to six months but was released at some point in late June. It didn’t last long, though — by mid-August, Hampson was back in the intersection of Grove and De-La Beche again, and again, taken into police custody as a result.

Why does he do it? We don’t know — because he’s not telling. Wales Online explains:

Over the last 10 years the defendant has sat through multiple trials to determine whether he can talk and is simply choosing not to or whether there is some psychological or physical issue preventing him from speaking – in legal terms to determine whether he is “mute of malice” or “mute by visitation of God” – and trials to determine whether he is guilty [of] standing in the road. Hampson refuses to enter pleas to any charge, refuses to call any evidence in his defense, and has always remained silent throughout the trials, usually just looking down at the floor of the dock when asked a question.

His family and friends have some theories why he does this. Hampson, apparently, talks to them regularly. Some have told the press that Hampson simply doesn’t like authority figures, and therefore doesn’t want to talk to them (but doesn’t mind getting arrested, I guess?). But his brother, John, told the Telegraph his motives are simple: He’s not really mute. He never stops talking. It is quite simple really. He’s a spoilt brat. There is nothing like a protest going on. He just does it to have a comfy life inside prison.” “And he doesn’t even have to walk far to get there—just a short trip halfway across the street

Bonus fact: Freshwater West is a beach near the southwest tip of Wales. (Here’s a map.) You’ve probably seen it before — it was used to film some scenes from the last two Harry Potter movies, including the death of Dobby. Because of that event, Freshwater West has become a tourist attraction. Fans of the movies and books have adorned the area with an unofficial shrine to the fallen house elf, which you can see here, via the BBC. The National Trust, the UK’s conservation charity, has allowed the shrine to remain despite potentially environmental impacts, but asks that fans not add to the monument: “Items like socks, trinkets, and paint chips from painted pebbles could enter the marine environment and food chain and put wildlife at risk,” the Trust told the BBC in a statement. Also, local parking lots are no longer free, to manage increased traffic.

From the Archives: A Wales of a Mistake: I love this.