Daily BrewB.C. police employ Easter Bunny for traffic sting
Banking on the success of a previous undercover sting, police in Nanaimo, B.C. decided to follow the lead of their counterparts in Chilliwack with an unusual undercover tactic.
But instead of donning the guise of a homeless man to catch drivers on their cell phones, Acting Sgt. Norm Smith dressed up as a giant Easter Bunny and stood at a number of intersections known for yielding a high number of accidents.
As the Nanaimo Daily News reports, the top traffic cop was on the lookout for driving violations, hoping his festive getup would sweeten the sting of a ticket.
Using his eyes (and gigantic ears), Smith's job was to spot violations and radio ahead to officers waiting down the road.
While most of the tickets were issued that day for cell phone use and not wearing a seatbelt, police pulled over a man at 9:30 a.m. for a far more serious offence: impaired driving.
Nanaimo police had issued 60 tickets in total by the end of the operation.
Though many commenters have angrily questioned the ethics of these undercover stings, Smith said locals got a kick out of the force's creative methodology.
"Once they realize who we are, they don't have a problem," he told the paper, adding that a number of people waved, honked their horns, and even approached him for photos.
The charade appeared to inspire at least one other individual to get into the spirit. At the end of his shift, Smith's wife reportedly issued him a carrot.
