The only Christmas cheer handed out by Orange County, Florida police this week has been tickets that cost motorists up to $280 plus the expense of increased insurance premiums. A sheriff's deputy disguised himself as an elf this week to fool approaching traffic with a bag reading "Happy Holidays" in front of him and a Kustom Signals ProLaser lidar gun in his hand. Britain's top media outlets, including the BBC and Daily Mail newspaper, have found this type of speed measuring device to be "wildly" inaccurate.

As many as twenty other officers assisted the elf while hidden out of sight, ready to pull over motorists traveling just a few miles per hour over the 45 limit on the broad, six lane road in perfectly clear and dry conditions.

"It's absolutely terrible," Tiffany Coy told WFTV-TV after receiving a ticket from the elf. "Why would they do that? It's not what Christmas is about in any way."

The operation used new computerized ticket printing devices to issue 180 tickets worth between $10,000 and $50,000 in just two hours and 45 minutes.