Elf-trapment ?

Santa may reward the nice, but, Thursday, one of his elves was punishing the naughty. The elf happened to be an Orange County sheriff's deputy and he gave a little extra sting to some speeding tickets.

Richard Lockman stands 5-foot-6. He's dressed in green and red. He's wearing tights. And he even has pointy shoes. But he's no ordinary elf.

"I'm Santa's helper today, helping to save lives so we can help these people enjoy their Christmas, so their families can enjoy their Christmas without the tragedy of traffic crashes," Deputy Lockman told Eyewitness News on Thursday.

With a sign that said, "Help An Elf - Slow Down," Lockman clocked the speed, while an army of 20 little helpers bagged the speeders along University Boulevard near Pelee Street.
"This stretch of highway is notorious for traffic crashes, around the holidays and full time throughout the year," explained Commander Ken Wynn, Orange County Sheriff's Office.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office got a complaint call that it wasn't right to use Santa to stop speeders. But Lockman was no Santa, just an elf armed with a radar gun.

"It's absolutely terrible. Why would they do that? It's not what Christmas is about in any way," said ticketed driver Tiffany Coy.

Like so many who were stopped, Coy thought the elf was more like a Grinch.

"Yes, I saw elf. I think that's quite entrapment, but what are you gonna do," she said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office wrote 53 tickets in 45 minutes and wound up writing a total of about 180 in the nearly three-hour detail. Two people were also arrested, one for marijuana and another for illegal firearms.

Deputies were able to write the tickets in only two hours and 45 minutes thanks to new technology. Now, a driver's license is scanned through a handheld computer and, after the infraction is loaded in, a copy of the ticket is printed out.

One deputy told Eyewitness News he's gone from writing 12 tickets a day, to 60. The machines were paid through a state grant.