Police stop during drug raid to play Wii Sports (with video)

Man, you just cannot resist the Nintendo Wii. It is almost impossible not to stop a play a few frames of Wii Sports‘ bowling, even if you’re on the job and that job is busting drug dealers. Some central Florida police officers have become the subject of nationwide ridicule after a hidden security camera caught them playing a Nintendo Wii during a drug raid.

While raiding the home of convicted Lakeland, Florida drug dealer Michael Difalco two officers found marijuana, methamphetamines and $30,000 in stolen property. Among Difalco’s possessions was a Nintendo Wii, with its best-selling pack-in game Wii Sports. It seems some officers detectives stopped to have an impromptu bowling tournament, not knowing Difalco had a camera recording everything. The search of Difalco’s property took nine hours and cost taxpayers $4,000. The cost of all the bad publicity is beyond measure.

Check out the video:

Of course, the video went viral and has now been seen everywhere from cellphone cameras to The Today Show. It gets better. Apparently a supervisor observed the play session and instead of shutting it off, joined in on the fun. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd is charged with the unfortunate task of defending the indefendible.

“How do you explain it?” Judd said to NBC 2 TV. “Well you can’t explain that, my deputies know that they shouldn’t have been playing Wii while they were involved in that search warrant.” Judd went on to say the “hurry up and wait” nature of drug searches means there is lots of down time and no taxpayer dollars were wasted. Good luck with that, Grady.

I suspect many Florida taxpayers would like the officers in question to be given all the free time they need to practice bowling – unpaid.

Read [NBC2 News Online] Also Read [Hip Hop Wired] Also Read [Gamertell]