Cop's "gluten-free meth" joke goes viral on Facebook
NEWARK, Calif. -- A San Francisco Bay Area police force made an unusual offer to meth users this week with a tongue-in-check social media post.
At first glance, the Newark Police Department's Facebook page is pretty standard stuff: officers getting awards, a missing elderly person and a report about fallen power pole.
But as you scroll down the page, a bit of law-enforcement comedy gold appears. The department offered to test meth to see if it's gluten-free.
The post read: "Is your meth laced with deadly gluten? Not sure? Bring your meth down to the PD and we will test it for you for free!"
Since May 4, the post has been viewed 24 million times, shared nearly a quarter-million times and has 9,000 comments.
CBS San Francisco asked Newark Police Lt. Chomnan Loth if he was comfortable with the title "social media genius."
"Uh, no," he replied with a chuckle. "Because I don't think it's necessarily genius. I thought it was just funny."
Loth manages the department's Facebook page and came up with the idea for the post after watching an infomercial about gluten-free diets, followed by a movie about Pablo Escobar, the infamous Columbian drug lord.
Loth says he wants to show the public that officers are not emotionless robots.
"We're just regular people just like everyone else," he said. "Your neighbor, mom, dad, brothers and sisters. And it's nice and refreshing to see a police department that's not too serious. We're able to show the human side of it, and we do have a sense of humor."
The comments have been overwhelmingly supportive, but there were a few that criticized the department. One read, "When you are done trying to be a comedian, maybe you can post some links for people trying to get help with addiction." To which Loth replied: "Relax, let us have some fun, huh? We have plenty of serious posts."
"We deal with death," Loth said. "We deal with sad circumstances. We deal with a lot of extraordinary things. You know, it's hard on us. It's hard on the community. And sometimes, you need that relief just to be able to crack a smile and to laugh a little bit."
For the record, the police did not receive any takers who wanted to have their meth tested for gluten.
