Batmobile breakdown turns heads of Ontario drivers

When the Dark Knight has car trouble, it's a recipe fortraffic chaos.

Drivers returning from Ontario's cottage country clogged Highway401 near Napanee on Sunday evening as they watched Batman, in hisBatsuit, working on his Batmobile.

Julie Toole said she watched Batman "in full garb standing atthe back (of the car). We only saw it for a few seconds as we weredriving. It was cool. And confusing."

Stephen Lawrence who prefers to be called the Brampton Batman was returning from a charity gig at a Kingston, Ont., mall when heheard a disconcerting noise in his car.

So he pulled off to the side of the road to inspect the problem,which turned out to be a loose hatch.

But by then, traffic had nearly stopped to get a glimpse of thecaped crusader with car troubles.

"I try my best to baby that car as best as I can," Lawrencesaid. "It was fine, but it didn't take long for traffic to build
up, as it always does when Batman is around."

The 39-year-old Lawrence has been portraying Batman in one way oranother since he was 14. He said it started when he was in highschool in Markham, Ont., where he wore a black trench coat to classover his school-issued uniform.

"I started wearing that and it looks like a big, black cape," he said.

"So my friends started calling me Batman."

That's when, he said, he started practising the art of ninjutsu.When his dad died a few years later, he began wearing a homemadeBatsuit and lurking around in the shadows at night.

"When your father passes away and, obviously, you're looking atBruce Wayne's life and looking at your life and you're saying, 'theykind of match, don't they?"'

So he went with it and spent years doing it, his own personalthing.

"You don't want people to think you're just nuts," Lawrencesaid.

"It was private. There are nights that I have gone out in myearly, put-together homemade suit and literally be Batman and be byyourself -you can help kind of cope with your changing life."

And then he bought a Batmobile

Then he decided to "follow his dream" to drive a Batmobile. Hisfriend saw one roaming the streets outside Toronto and Lawrenceeventually met the man who builds

them in Orangeville, Ont.

He began saving to buy one, so rather than take transit or driveto work, he decided to "come out" as Batman and walked home afterhis late shift at Coca-Cola -- a 2 1/2 hour walk. He met many wholoved the suit and police officers who wanted to know what was going on.

"I told them I was getting a Batmobile and would appreciate itif they didn't pull me over every two minutes," he said.

Through an unfortunate turn of events someone broke intoBrampton Batman's home and made off with a bunch of stuff -hestashed the insurance money as part of what he needed for the car.

"The rest of it I worked my cape off for," said Lawrence, whobought a Batmobile from Glenn McCullagh about two years ago.

Lawrence said it's made from an old cop car, a Chevrolet Caprice,with a 1989 Batmobile replica body made by McCullagh.

He still gets pulled over periodically, mostly by curiousofficers. He said the car is street legal, has insurance and Ontarioplates.

He said the car has broken down on him a few times, which wasn'ta big deal when he was still talking to McCullagh -- they aren'tspeaking because of a spat over comments made on Reddit.

So he gets mechanical help elsewhere. And he still gets to drivea Batmobile.