Hudson Valley Police Give Rulebreakers Gifts Instead of Tickets

Hudson Valley residents who thought they were caught breaking the law this week received a surprise from local law enforcement.

Imagine rolling through a stop sign and suddenly seeing lights in your rearview mirror. It's a situation many of us have been in, and something that can certainly ruin your day. This year, with so many things to worry about and the added stress of preparing for the holidays, getting pulled over for a ticket is the last thing anyone wants to happen.

That dread and worry over being pulled over quickly faded for away for some motorists in the Village of Wappingers Falls, when officers surprised them with a holiday switcheroo. Instead of ticketing people who were pulled over for minor violations of the vehicle and traffic law, police gave them Starbucks gift cards.

This is the second year the Village of Wappingers Falls police department replaced tickets with gifts as a way to inspire residents with "goodwill and generosity."

The Village of Wappingers Falls PBA posted images of the officers handing out Starbucks cards on their Facebook page.

As long as the motorists had a clean record and weren't committing a serious offense, the officers let them go without a ticket and handed them a gift card to Starbucks.

Now, before you go driving back and forth through the village with a broken tail light hoping to get some free coffee, the random acts of generosity only last for a few days before Christmas and don't apply to every traffic offense.