Be careful the next time you’re at a stoplight and want to get a quick peek at your phone. That friendly construction worker beside your car might actually be a cop playing dress-up.


Yes, police in Marietta, Georgia have recently begun handing out $150 tickets for “distracted driving” by posing as road workers. Despite the fact that these people do what nearly everybody does while they’re waiting at a long traffic light.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re stopped at a light,” police officer Nick Serkedakis told WSB-TV with a straight face. “If you’re on a public thoroughfare or a public road and you’re facing the phone you’re going to get our attention and we’re going to have a conversation with you.”


And that conversation will cost you about 150 bucks. So if there really is a healthy dialogue started, it should probably be about how police departments can raise money without actively deceiving people.

“I really do think this is going to be the DUI of the future,” Serkedakis said, again with a straight face, and failing to mention that these people were in idle cars at stoplights.

Nobody is advocating that drivers start a tweetstorm while they’re zipping down the freeway. Distracted drivers kill thousands of people every year. But the fact that most of the drivers ticketed in Georgia were in stopped vehicles, coupled with the fact that the cops were disguising their appearance, makes it easy to see why drivers feel duped.

There’s really got to be a better way to try out your Village People cosplay.

Image: Screenshot from WSBTV