Indianapolis - What started as a joke between co-workers at the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department is making its way around the internet and not everyone is laughing. The so-called joke involves a mock hostage situation with Colts fans holding Bears memorabilia for ransom.
Jan 31, 2007 10:34 AM
Richard Essex/Eyewitness News
The mock hostage event started Tuesday morning when a couple of Hancock Sheriff Deputies got into a fellow deputy’s office and “stole” his prized Chicago Bears rug.
The event snowballed into a video, in which deputies are dressed in black with their faces covered. They are poking their assault rifles at the rug while holding a torch to it.
“Was it the most appropriate thing to do? Probably not, but you know, people who support their team to the Super Bowl do some pretty bizarre things,” said Hancock County Sheriff C.K. “Bud” Gray.
Sheriff Gray admits the video was recorded inside the Hancock County Sheriff building first thing Tuesday morning.
“It kind of surprised me when I saw the video,” said Sheriff Gray. “I’ve been involved in a lot of practical jokes in my thirty years and that is probably one of the better ones I’ve seen put together.” Sheriff Gray was not in the video but declined to tell Eyewitness News who was. “I’ve talked with the officers who made the video. It was done as a practical joke.”
The unintended consequences of a practical joke can be the difference between something funny and something completely different.
I don’t like it, It looks like terrorists to me.
To everyone we showed the video we got the same answer.
“I didn’t get the humor in it; I’m afraid it escapes me.
“It just depends on how you take it,” said another Hancock County resident. “I just didn’t find the humor in it.” According to an email from an employee of the department, the deputies did enlist the help of a jail “trustee” to record the video. Sheriff Gray contends there was no harm intended by the video.
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