How Santa Stole our Christmas

Don't cops have anything better to do?

I'm toodleing around before work and BH calls me.

BH: If you're driving around and you're on Grand be careful. There's a Santa that jumps in front of your car and when you don't stop, a motorcycle cop comes out and gives you a ticket.

ME: Nooo that's an urban legend. Cops have better things to do than set up a silly sting like that.

BH: I'm holding the ticket in my hand.

ME: WHAT! WHAT! Wait a minute, Santa jumps out in front of your car and then motorcycle cop give you a ticket? Really?

BH: (much cursing, lots of four letter words, mostly the 'F' word, nothing nice to say about Santa or Elsinore's finest.)

So I get into the office and BH is still cussing. I hated to leave this happy atmosphere but I needed to mail a package. I walk next door to The Packing Box and tell the gal behind the counter all about BH's encounter with Santa.

Man behind me: Oh yeah, he just jumps right out in front of you and you don't have enough time to really stop and then a motorcycle cop comes and gives you a ticket.

Me: Seriously?! This is like a Santa Sting? Wow!

I'm still not believing that it's a sting. I don't know, it just sounds so juvenile, doesn't it? A prostitute sting, I get that. Drug sting, I'm down with that too. I have to ask, is not stopping for pedestrians a huge crime? Are we worried that the real Santa will get offed by a careless driver? Because I'm thinking Santa should be in the air, with his sleigh, and flying reindeer, where he belongs. And if his obnoxious elf/Santa wanna be's can't be more careful crossing the street then I think they deserve to get bumped. (not really, but, you know)

I tell BH that I just met someone in The Packing Box, same thing, Santa, crossing, ticket.

We jump in the car and head on down to the scene of the crime. We sit, wait, trying to get a picture of Santa jumping out. We're there, maybe 10 minutes, maybe less and 10 cars get pulled over for tickets. Right in front of us was this trailer, Says Mikes Electric or something on it. Someone gets out and fools around with something. It's an undercover trailer. They are filming everything from this little trailer.

And they were quite productive too. In three hours 52 drivers got tickets. Yes thats right, 52. They had at least 2 motorcycle cops, BH said 3/4 motorcycle cops, 1 Santa cop and at 1 least cop in the trailer.

When we were robbed several years ago it took 4 hours to get 1 cop out to our house.

In all fairness our brave men in blue, all of the drivers that I saw get tickets had plenty of time to stop and did not. Santa was not in danger of getting hit or anything, but they did not stop or even slow down.

Still, I think 6 of our police force is a little much for a 'failure to yield to a pedestrian' sting.

Go to Santa Sting to read the article.

Oh one more thing, the article states that this sting was set up near the middle school. Near the middle school. Of course you can understand we don't want our youths to be hurt crossing the streets near the school. Except the sting was conducted between 9-12. During that time the students WOULD be in school if they weren't all off for the holidays.

That is all.