Talk about a Christmas gift. Police in Lowell, Michigan, turned on their flashing lights, pulled over drivers — and offered wrapped presents.
A video posted to YouTube showed the shocked responses. And it wasn’t just a couple of drivers who received the holiday kindness — about 50 motorists who otherwise would have been ticketed for minor offenses, a local NBC News affiliate reported.
Salvador Galeno, one of the motorists, said, “I was thinking, ’I was not driving over the speed limit. What could it be?’”
The officer befuddled Mr. Galeno with seemingly unrelated questions: “The Xbox One, that’s what your kids want? That’s the go-to present for your kids?”
“Yeah, but they’re not going to have it,” Mr. Galeno replied.
Meanwhile, police at a local store listened in on the conversation — and went into action. They purchased the game system and rushed to the scene of the traffic stop, just as the officer was pretending to write a ticket.
“After 10, 15 minutes with my paperwork, [they] got back with a box wrapped with Christmas wrapping paper,” Mr. Galeno said, explaining he unwrapped it to find the Xbox for his kids.
The brainchild behind the holiday cheer was Rob Bliss, producer of the Christian-based TV network, UP TV. The network, which paid for the gifts, wanted some reality shots of good cheer and approached the police department with the idea, the NBC affiliate reported.
“I was a little nervous as to how this was going to go, because ordinarily people don’t like getting pulled over by the police,” Officer Scot VanSolkema told the affiliate.
But the responses was by and large positive.
“You can see in the video there were a lot of hugs,” Lowell Detective Gordy Lauren said. “One guy was headed to the east side of the state to see his kids. … He actually started crying.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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