Cop, pilot land helicopter to get doughnuts

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - An Albuquerque policeman and his pilot face disciplinary measures after using a police helicopter this week to swoop in for a midnight snack of doughnuts, officials said on Friday.

The officer and the civilian pilot were on night patrol over the city in a Kiowa OH-58 helicopter when they landed in a vacant lot next to a Krispy Kreme doughnut store around 2 a.m. CDT on Thursday morning.

"The contracted pilot and a police officer landed the copter early in the morning, ran in and grabbed a dozen, came back out and took off," Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Brian McCutcheon said.

"I don't know whose brain child it was, but it's quite an ugly child," he said.

McCutcheon said the event was being investigated as a possible misuse of city funds as well as for safety reasons, although he added there was no specific protocol for this case because it had ever happened before.

"We've been given no reasonable excuse as to why they would even think they could do this. But there could be some very serious ramifications," he said.

An eyewitness told the Albuquerque Journal that he saw the APD helicopter circle the Krispy Kreme and land in a nearby dirt field.

"I was angry, and I'm still kind of angry. That's my tax dollars, your tax dollars. You've got no business flying in to get doughnuts," said Keith Turner, who works nearby and was taking a smoke break when he saw the chopper swoop in,

The cost to the department of running a Kiowa, including fuel and maintenance, is $80 an hour, McCutcheon said.

A Krispy Kreme employee who asked not to be identified said he didn't see why people were making a big deal of the unusual doughnut run.

"Cops got to eat, too," he said.