Cedar Park police hand out toys not tickets
Cedar Park police conducted a special holiday traffic enforcement operation Thursday. Not a single ticket was issued, but that’s not exactly why there were a lot of smiling faces.
Throughout the year officers Larry Gonzales and Jason Moldenhour issue hundreds of traffic tickets.
"Almost every contact we make all year, people are not happy to see us,” said Officer Moldenhour.
Thursday morning, there were no citations for those stopped; only toys.
"This is one time we know, today we are going to make people happy,” said Officer Gonzales.
The two were joined by several other Cedar Park police officers for what's called 'Operation Traffic Santa.' Only drivers with children were targeted.
"It’s the whole thing about gift giving, I mean everybody knows what it’s like to give to family members, but when you give a gift to a complete stranger and get that one child to light up, and the parent is very appreciative because they are not being stopped for a traffic violation, they're being stopped for, they don’t know why, but we are giving out gifts to the kids, they are very appreciative,” said Officer Gonzales.
This team of elves with badges set up shop under the SH183-A overpass at 1431. For much of Thursday morning they dug deep into boxes and bags filled with toys. For those who got stopped, it was an unexpected holiday greeting.
"Yeah, we were just out shopping and the boys saw the police officers and said, let’s go say hi," said Yvette Lightenheimer.
This Holiday Blues Tradition didn't begin with a van full of toys. It began with a group of police officers sitting around a table in the morning and coming up with a simple idea.
"Yeah, four years ago we were eating breakfast and came up with the idea,” said Moldenhour.
Gonzales added, "so we decided to buy some gifts, the first year we bought, among ourselves in our division, scrounged some money together bought some Barbie dolls and bought some hot wheels and handed them out.”
The toy give-away is now in its fourth year.
"We didn't think it was going to grow like this,” said Gonzales.
The spirit of giving wasn't limited to the officers. Several drivers pulled over and tried to contribute to the operation. The gesture was appreciated - but it was suggested the best way to keep this holiday spirit alive was to make donations to the annual Blue and Brown Santa drives.