Prisoners sneak pig into Vermont State Police decal

Feb. 2, 2012 wcax.com

WILLISTON, Vt. - Vermont State police are confronting a prisoner prank and investigating who's behind it. Inmates tasked with making decals of the official state seal for state police cruisers took some liberties with the design. And troopers are not happy about it.

Police, troopers, cops, the fuzz, and pigs; police officers are called a lot of names. Inmates apparently decided to use their creative sides, making sure that pigs made their way into the state seal for the first time since it was first designed more than three centuries ago.

Hundreds of cruisers patrol Vermont with the state seal standing out on both front doors. The seal was originally designed by Ira Allen in the 1770s. There's a tree, mountains and a cow to honor dairy farming in Vermont.

Four years ago the state wanted more decals for cruisers, giving the job to the prison print shop in Windsor. Inmates were supposed to load the state crest image in as given to them, but someone decided to make a major change-- payback perhaps.

In the new decal, one of the spots on the cow is actually a pig. Pig is a derogatory term for police. A state trooper in Southern Vermont just noticed the altered artwork.

"And I apologize to them," Vt. Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito said. "I think it's really unfortunate that somebody took it upon themselves to reach out and do this to them."

Pallito says the decals were recently put on cruisers. As many as 30 have the prankster pigs.

"We'll have to make sure we do a better job of quality assurance in the future to make sure this doesn't happen again," Pallito said.

State police aren't laughing either. In a statement, Maj. Bill Sheets said "While some may find humor in the decal modifications, the joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the taxpayers."

Pallito expects the bill to replace the offending swine will run about $800.

The more you look at the decal the more you may see. We've heard from people who say in addition to the pig, there may also be a silhouette of a naked women underneath the cow.

As far as catching the inmate or person who did this, Pallito says it could be difficult because there is a lot of turnover in jail.