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Cops Play Wii Game During a Drug Raid

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    In March, Polk drug investigators raided
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    the Perkle Road home of 43-year-old
    Michael Difalco near Lakeland.
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    Difalco has an extensive arrest record.
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    He's done time in state prison for trafficking drugs.
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    On this day,
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    members of a multi-depatment
    taskforce claim they
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    discovered drugs, weapons, and stolen property.
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    A security camera they missed showed detectives
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    also discovered a fun video game to play.
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    Wii Bowling.
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    And over the course of the next 9 hours...
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    Game on...
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    And here we go...
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    Who's the man?
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    That's right.
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    Now he sets up for the spare...
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    Ooooh!
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    This detective bowled frame after frame after frame.
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    Practice makes perfect.
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    And while another female detective
    lifted a couch looking for drugs,
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    this guy focused on pin action.
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    Now you might be under the impression
    police work can get pretty exciting.
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    Well it can.
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    Polk Sherriff Grady Judd calls
    the display embarrassing.
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    (reporter)
    How do you explain it?
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    (Judd)
    Well you can't explain that.
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    My deputies know that they shouldn't
    have been playing Wii...
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    while they were involved in that search warrant.
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    (reporter) Detectives from the Sherriff's Office Winterhaven,
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    Auburndale, and Lakeland PDs participated in the raids,
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    all caught on camera.
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    (Judd)
    That doesn't please me.
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    What pleases me less is the supervision that didn't say,
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    "Turn the television off."
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    (reporter) Instead of ordering the video game and television turned off,
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    this supervisor, from Lakeland PD, joined the fun.
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    Wow! A strike!
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    That raised the bar on several levels.
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    (beared man)
    He does have pretty good form.
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    (Escobar)
    He does.
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    (reporter)
    Defense attorney Rick Escobar watched a sampling
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    of the drug raid video.
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    (Escobar)
    I've never seen anything like this and...
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    I find this very offensive.
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    Shocking... embarassing.
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    I'm sure the department...
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    is extremely embarrassed by this behavior.
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    (reporter)
    Records show 16 detectives spent 9 hours
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    searching Difalco's property.
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    The cost to taxpayers: $4,000.
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    (Escobar)
    All the citizens are thinking, "Wait a minute.
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    We're paying these people to go out and protect us
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    and here they are playing...
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    bowling on our time?"
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    (reporter) The sherriff argues there's
    always down time during searches.
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    No tax dollars were wasted.
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    (Judd) The nature of a search warrant
    is hurry up and wait.
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    It just is.
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    Am I trying to defend the fact that they were bowling?
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    Not at all. That was inappropriate.
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    (reporter) The sherriff claims he launched
    an internal administrative investigation
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    and will wait for a final report before he decides
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    if anyone will face discipline.
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    (Judd)
    It's an embarrassment to the detectives involved
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    and it's an embarrassment to the organization.
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    Which you know what?
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    We employ 1,800 people.
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    Not one of them are perfect.
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    We all make mistakes.
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    They made a mistake.
Title:
Cops Play Wii Game During a Drug Raid
Duration:
02:59

English subtitles

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