Washington State Police are celebrating the Christmas season by dressing up like the homeless to trap motorists who are not wearing a seat belt. The trick works so well that a trooper in Pierce County issued tickets at the rate of $760 an hour on Saturday.

The officer, who was not in uniform, wore a cardboard sign around his neck reading, "Happy Holidays, Buckle Up." Charitable drivers passing by would offer him money to buy food. The officer refused this money and instead used a radio to summon a uniformed trooper to pull over the driver to write a $101 citation.

The panhandler sting program is a result of legislative approval of a "primary seat belt law" in 2002 that allows police to pull over motorists who have done nothing wrong to issue a seat belt ticket. Previously a seat belt ticket could only be given to motorists pulled over for a more serious offense. A Vancouver officer who came up with the homeless trap was even able to issue a $1050 littering ticket to a man who had thrown a soda can at him, not realizing he was a police officer in disguise.