When you’ve got inmates of a correctional facility manufacturing decals for state police cruisers, hilarity is practically guaranteed to ensue. Vermont prisoners got away with quite a prank, sneaking a pig into the state police crest decals that adorned two doors of 30 cruisers for the last year.
We’re guessing no one in the state police was squealing with laughter over what Reuters calls, “an apparent reference to the pejorative word for police.” Inmates in the print shop made one of the spots of the cow on the crest into the shape of a pig, and that decal made it past inspections and onto police cars.
State police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro said it’s no laughing matter.
“It dishonors the memory of those past and present members, especially for those who have lost their lives in the line of duty,” she said, adding that while some might find it humorous, changing out the decals on 30 cars will come at the expense of taxpayers.
A police employee spotted the prank this week, and the “source and timing” of the change, which likely happened at the print shop, are under investigation.
Yes, it is a very serious situation. But come on, a whole year of riding around with a pig on a police car door, placed there by people incarcerated by perhaps those very same authorities? Worthy of a few immature giggles.
And for those who might have trouble spotting porky, we’ll help you out:
Vermont inmates hide pig in official police car decal [Reuters]
More From Consumerist
-
The Sad Hawaiian-Style Celeste Pizza With One Pineapple And Many Hams
-
Raiders Of The Lost Walmart: Old Crap Isn’t As Useless As it Seems
-
Celeste Hawaiian Pizzas Add Some Pineapple, Still Have Sparse Toppings
-
FedEx Knows I Need To Send 9 Boxes To My New House, Suspends My Account
-
How Far Would You Drive To Return A Redbox DVD?
“State police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro said it’s no laughing matter.”
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m laughing my ass off.
Seriously…that’s hilarious. Of course, most police officers I’ve met don’t respond terribly well to teasing.
Cause 90% of them are complete assholes on & off the street.
Nah, not that many. Have known several cops…most of them are just fine. But I do have a “razor” that I’ve developed on the subject:
An officer’s attitude varies in inverse relation to the size of their jurisdiction. Which is to say, a state trooper is likely to be a swell guy. A county park ranger is probably a dick, and a mall cop is just begging to find a reason to beat someone with his flashlight.
My experience corresponds to yours – anytime I’ve been pulled over by state troopers, they’ve been all business. Pulled over in town? Puffed-up douchebags treating a malfunctioning brake light like a felony. I grew up with a couple of guys who wanted, more than anything, to become cops… they both ended up working as discount-store security; one managed to wrangle a part-time sheriff’s deputy gig, but that ended when he was popped for DUI by one of his co-workers. (And yes, I laughed & laughed & laughed.)
Likewise; crafty cons crack wise.
Yep, laughing over here too.
Even without the police angle, it’s still funny.
Funny as all get out. Love it!
When you consider the people who did this are already in prison, and the people who were impacted by it weren’t hurt in anyway, then I think it is okay to laugh.
Exactly. Get the eff over it. Well played, inmates.
It seems most everyone else is as well…so much so, they’ve disabled their contact page!
http://vsp.vermont.gov/contact
*giggle*
“…you know what burns my bacon?”
lol
Changing the decals and billing the taxpayer? Give me some housepaint and $45 and call it a day.
Exactly…maybe if it made it past “inspections”, those inspectors should be held accountable too? why waste taxpayer money changing this.
agreed. a $2 sharpie can fix it.
or a $2 bottle of nailpolish.
Or just leave it alone. God forbid that the police dept’s fragile ego take a jab.
I am hearing a cacophony of Eddie Murphy laughs coming from these inmates.
“it’s no laughing matter”
Then why is it so funny?
This brings me much joy.
A couple of Sharpies would fix that right up. I’d give that cow some additional black patches.
Or they could just make a small decal of the cow without pig, to stick on over the original cow. Come on, how hard would that be to do?
Or they could “man up” and do nothing, like adults.
Haha, that’s great. Vermont and their shenanigans (I’m from NH).
I swear to god I’ll pistol whip the next guy that says shenanigans!
Hey BorkBorkBork, what’s the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks?
Shenanigans?
Oooooooooooh! *hands c_c a pistol*
Well played sir….well played.
Comedy. Gold.
If you choose to use slave labor, you choose to accept the results of it.
So what would you rather have for inmates who have commited crimes, some of which may have been violent or property crimes? Caviar and filet mignon? Champagne and high dollar call girls? Or how about cleaning the f’ing side of the roads and menial tasks like this?
This “slave labor” nonsense is utterly and totally idiotic.
erm – caviar vs “work on stuff for no pay”… I think I hear the young and the restless theme song playing.
They’re payed way way waaaaay under minimum wage. And they’re under supervision 24/7 and never allowed to leave.
Sounds like slave labor to me.
This.
If prison jobs sound like slavery to you, then you don’t understand slavery.
It’s okay to be against both things without equating them, you know. I oppose both Republicans and neo-Nazis, but I never equate them.
“And they’re under supervision 24/7 and never allowed to leave.”
Ummmm that’s because they’re incarcerated. Because the majority of them fucked up. On their own. Don’t want to pick up trash by the side of the road? Don’t fuck up.
..and dont get falsely convicted of anything either.. But that never happens, right?
Because then, you would subject people to forced labor for very little pay, and they did nothing to deserve it. And that is fucked up.
That’s a straw man, And- didn’t suggest that they should be given any of those hyperbolic benefits you stated. And- only observed that if you’re choosing to use slave labor (of which forced penal labor is a subset) some malfeasance is a perfectly predictable outcome. You may object to using the term slavery because you associate it with graver variations, but that doesn’t change the basic fact that forced penal labor is a form of slavery that as a society we currently deem acceptable.
I think in most prisons, working is something the guys choose. If I had a cell and a rec yard and nothing else, I would want to join in on some “slave labor”.
Out here in the free world, if I didn’t need to work I wouldn’t. at all.
Slave labor? How do you figure? Many inmates want to work and seek out jobs within the prison system. Nobody is forcing them to do anything. As for the sticker issue, Ive been an officer for almost 20 years and to us old school guys being called a pig is nothing. Its an acronym for Pride, Integrity and Guts.
Wrong word, it is not slave labor, it is indentured or forced labor.
And please note that despite the official modern definition of indentured, throughout history what happened in practice was that most people did not have a choice and got little or no pay. Indentured servants were (and still are through prisons) the next step up from slaves.
Personally though, I don’t find anything wrong with the modern day practice of forced labor for convicts. Keep in mind though, it still is forced labor and most wouldn’t do it if they had a choice.
Could explain the xbox-360 and their RROD problem.
Meow that is the funniest story I’ve read on Consumerist in a long time meow.
Do you think I’m funny? Do you see me jumping from tree to tree all nimbly bimbly? Do you see me drinking milk from a saucer? DO YOU SEE ME EATING MICE!!!!!
CHICKEN F***ER!
We’re just headed up to Canada for some French Fries and Gravy sir.
poutine..
State Police to Taxpayers: “Fine. YOU deal with the hog.”
Meow that is the funniest story I’ve read on Consumerist in a long time meow.
How abotu instead wasting more tax payer money and acting like babys just get some touch up paint and make it more round since it hurts the big bad policey mans feelings.
It could be worse — it was a hog and not a Krispy Kreme.
Came here for obscure “Super Trooper” references.
Left disappointed.
It should be noted that it was the fictional Vermont State Troopers who were featured in the film “Super Troopers” That turns this from Hilarious to “you might hurt yourself laughing so hard” Hilarious… Being a police officer myself I almost fell down laughing so hard!
“It dishonors the memory of those past and present members, especially for those who have lost their lives in the line of duty,” she said.
Yes, because immediately when I see “the shape of the pig on a cow” I think of officers killed in the line of duty. Yes. That’s exactly what it reminds me of.
Well played! If it went unnoticed this long, I’d say just leave it be. I assume the cars will be retired within 5-6 years.
What are the 3 pink objects to the left of the pine tree? I thought those were the pigs.
They appear to be ETs.
Liters of cola.
And the third one near the back went wee wee wee all the way home
According to the Wikipedia page about the seal, those are grain sheaves.
Bacon this into the decal at the chop was a great prank, it’s why I ham laughing.
Well played inmates!
If they wouldnt have made a big deal out of it, probably no one else would have know. Just leave the stupid decals the way they are.
It is absolutely a laughing matter, bravo and kudos to the creative folks behind this.
Who cares about the pig, what the heck are those weird yellow mushroom/phallic things lined up on the other side!?
Maybe prisoners shouldn’t be creating stuff for the police… just sayin.
Ya, that’s the downside of using forced labor. lol
OK, Vermont State Police, time to man up. If you can’t react to this by saying “Hey, you got us good. Nice one!” and moving on, I don’t want you enforcing the Law, OK?
Yes, it turned from funny to hilarious in the first ten minutes, then immediately turned to terrible, and stayed that way for the next hour and ten minutes.
They should have known the one from Alice’s Restaurant would be trouble
I see Jesus.
No, that’s the virgin Mary.
“While some may find humor in the decal modifications, the joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the taxpayers,” Police Major Bill Sheets said in a statement.
The joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the taxpayers only because the police are acting so thin-skinned and offended at this. If they just shrug it off and live with it until the cars are retired it would cause no additional taxpayer expense.
If you’re hungry for a hunk of fat and juicy meat
Eat my buddy Pumbaa here he’s a treat
Come on down and dine
On this tasty swine
All you have to do is get in line
Aaaare you achin’
(Yup, yup, yup)
Foooor some bacon?
(Yup, yup, yup)
Heeee’s a big pig
(Yup, yup)
You could be a big pig too.
Ooh!
We’re outsourcing graphic work to inmates now?
That’s what I was thinking. Someone needs to chat with the graphic designer, who I doubt was a prisoner.
Why would the taxpayers foot the bill? The perpetrators should.
I remember being ‘spoken to’ by the police when I was a young ‘un. Imagine my shock and amusement when I noticed that the officer was wearing a silver Porky Pig head tie pin. True story.
So, why not just leave it be? As noted, nobody even noticed for a whole year, and I doubt most people will notice unless they actually look, and even fewer would care. The only people that have a problem with this are the police union, and last I checked, government agencies like this answer to the citizenry, not the police union. If the police union wants to arbitrarily waste money doing this, THEY should foot the bill for it.
“changing out the decals on 30 cars will come at the expense of taxpayers.”
Yes, because paying for prison labor is so expensive!
Keeping marijuana illegal is the only way manufacturing in the US can compete with Foxconn’s wages!
Bingo !
You can’t even see it, unless you are looking for it. For that, there are going to print all-new decals? Come on!!!
It’s Bacon!!
Just replace the pig spot with a donut-shaped one and everyone will be happy.
(BTW, are those mountains in the background or a set of titties with a worn-out bra attached?)
/s
Note that graphic design jobs are being outsourced to prisoners.
That is awesome! Meow.
Funny stories about prison, from the country where 1 out of 50 men are behind bars on any given day.
America imprisons its people at a rate 7-10 times higher than Canada and Western Europe. We’ve quintupled the size of our daily prison population since 1970. A boy born in America today has about a 1 in 11 chance of serving a prison sentence during their lifetime.
But boy, do we get some good prison humor out of it.