St. Louis Co. cops play Secret Santa

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. -- How about instead of a ticket, a police officer pulled you over and handed you a $100 bill?

That's what happened across St. Louis County throughout the day Wednesday, a police spokesman told CBS St. Louis.

"We pull over somebody for a minor traffic violation, an officer walks up to the car and instead of getting a traffic ticket that day they get a hundred dollars," spokesman Shawn McGuire said. "It's kind of like a Secret Santa. It develops that positive interaction with our residents."

"Most of the time it's a negative interaction, somebody getting a ticket or something along those lines," McGuire says. "But today's a little bit different."

According to CBS St. Louis, that was the precise goal of the anonymous donor who gave the department $3,000 to hand out.

McGuire also offered a note of caution, saying, "...it's not advisable to speed or tailgate or change lanes without signaling to try and catch an officer's attention because then you might end up with a real ticket instead of the money."

Anonymous donations funded the Secret Santa program in St. Louis County last year, as well.

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