Michigan police surprise drivers by helping with holiday shopping

Instead of a speeding ticket, officers in Lowell, Michigan gave pulled-over drivers gifts to help with their holiday shopping. The stunt was funded UP TV, but it made quite a few drivers happy. 

|
AP Photo/Patrick Record/File
University of Michigan students lay on the ground during a protest of the killing of unarmed black men by white police, at the University of Michigan. In a publicity stunt, officers in Lowell try to show a different side of police handling by surprising drivers with holiday gifts instead of writing tickets.

No matter how good or upstanding or honorable you may be, being pulled over by police can make anyone feel guilty. As your heart races, you wonder, "Did I come to a full stop at that traffic light?" "Do they know I've got an illegally copied Taylor Swift album on my iPhone?" "Has the IRS finally figured out that I owe internet tax?"

According to Mashable, cops in Lowell, Michigan decided to use drivers' tendency toward self-reproach to hand out a few surprises this holiday season. The results are kind of amazing.

The gist of the police department's prank was fairly simple, but the execution was complicated. Officers pulled over unsuspecting motorists for minor infractions, like overly dark window tint. To keep up appearances, they gathered each person's license and registration, but their real goal was to talk to drivers and find out what items remained on their holiday shopping lists.

Each officer was wired with a microphone, and a production team listened to their conversations with drivers. As motorists began to share their holiday needs, the info was relayed to a team at a nearby store, which located the items, purchased them, and brought them to the officer. Then, instead of writing out a ticket, the officer surprised the driver with the gifts she'd just described. The drivers' reactions -- at least the ones included in the video  -- are priceless.

In fairness, we should mention that the project was a PR stunt funded by UP TV (a family-friendly cable offering formerly known as the Gospel Music Channel, according to Wikipedia). Which makes the whole thing feel a little less genuine than it should, but hey: it made quite a few drivers happy, and it generated huge publicity for UP, with more than 880,000 views of the above video in just two days. And though the clip doesn't do much to quell the national debate we're having about police brutality these days, it's a nice diversion for a few brief moments.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Michigan police surprise drivers by helping with holiday shopping
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/In-Gear/2014/1211/Michigan-police-surprise-drivers-by-helping-with-holiday-shopping
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe