Deputies surprise Henderson Co. residents with gift cards

HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — When some drivers in West Tennessee thought they were getting pulled over for traffic violations, a local sheriff’s department had a different plan.

Operation Christmas in Henderson County included traffic stops over the month of December. However, Sheriff Brian Duke says deputies weren’t looking for speeding and seat belt violations.

“We pulled up right beside them in traffic and thought, ‘Wow. That van is full of kids, so let’s just spread some holiday cheer,'” Duke said.

They surprised multiple drivers with gift cards to a grocery store.

“First, they both thought they were being pulled over for a traffic violation,” Duke said.

They let the joke play out, with drivers wondering what they did.

“We didn’t want to let on that it wasn’t that at first. We kind of just wanted to have some fun,” Duke said.

Sheriff Duke said they were pulled over because the kids were misbehaving, and that’s when Duke said they were joking and gave them the gift cards.

Then, when deputies drove up on a lady raking leaves in her front yard, they didn’t just give her a $25 gift card.

“We gave her the gift card and wished her a Merry Christmas, and when we left, I was thinking, and Jeremiah was saying it, ‘We need to go help her with those leaves,'” Duke said.

So, they raked up all the leaves in the 94-year-old woman’s yard.

“It took us 30 minutes with six people,” Duke said.

He says with a yard that size, it would have taken her all day.

“She just couldn’t thank us enough. She said, ‘I have never gotten this done,'” he said.

And the department was just thankful to help.

“It was fun for us. It gets us out of the rut of what we have to do every day,” Sheriff Duke said.

He says the department plans to do Operation Christmas again.