Vancouver Police Department had been getting a few reports of robberies committed on vulnerable wheelchair users and decided to think outside the box in order to snuff out the incidents. They sent Sergeant Mark Horsley to the streets undercover. He was posing as a paralyzed person. For five days he wheeled himself about the streets in the notorious Downtown Eastside of the coty. He ingratiated himself in the local community and acted as bait with a bag of money opened on his lap…
And the results of the experiment were pretty shocking. People kept coming up to him, but to help. He wasn’t robbed or exploited once. It’s an uplifting tale that we hope isn’t exclusive just to Canadian cities like Vancouver. We’d hope this kind of selfless act would happen across the world.
“My boss tied a pork chop around my neck and threw me into a shark tank,” Horsley said.
But he’s glad he conducted the undercover sting because it’s put his mind at rest. And perhaps others too. Plus we think it serves as a great deterrent to anyone low enough to consider robbing someone in a wheelchair. Hey – just look how much people look out for one another. So think again…
