A routine vehicle inspection in the state of Vermont uncovered an audacious prank hiding in plain sight on official law enforcement vehicles. For an unknown number of years, state troopers patrolled the highways driving cars with secretly altered police decals featuring a hidden insult crafted by prison inmates.
The doctored image, displaying a widely known derogatory term, went entirely unnoticed by the authorities who drove the very vehicles displaying it every single day. The sudden discovery sparked an immediate, widespread investigation to find the culprits inside a state correctional facility.
A Covert Change to the State Crest
The official Vermont State Police crest traditionally features a solid red cow standing against a backdrop of snowy mountains. In February 2012, a state trooper inspecting a police vehicle noticed a peculiar detail on the car’s door decal. The cow in the image was no longer solid red.
Instead, it was covered in spots, and one of those specific spots was intentionally shaped to resemble a pig. State police spokeswoman Stephanie Dasaro noted that the shape was an apparent reference to the pejorative word often directed at police officers. The authorities quickly realized that this modification was not an isolated manufacturing error.
Tracing the Decals to a Prison Print Shop
Investigators conducted a fleet-wide review and found the altered design decorating 30 different police cruisers across Vermont. The investigation immediately pointed toward the source of the decals. The state employs inmates to manufacture various government materials. The doctored crests were traced directly back to a print shop located inside a Vermont women’s correctional facility.
In this specific shop, prisoners were responsible for producing state stationery, vehicle license plates, and the exact police cruiser decals in question. According to Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito, approximately 60 of these specific decals were manufactured in the couple of years leading up to the 2012 discovery. Vermont State Police spokesperson Adam Silverman stated it was unclear exactly how long the decals had been applied to the vehicles before detection, estimating it was at least a full year.
An Unsolved Mystery Behind Bars
Once the origin of the prank was confirmed, officials attempted to identify the specific individual responsible for manipulating the digital file of the crest. However, the investigation hit a dead end. Several inmates working in the prison print shop had authorized access to the computer files containing the official crest. Pallito explained that investigators could only determine how many women had access to the file and who they were.
Because multiple people shared access, pinpointing the exact person who made the final digital alteration proved impossible without a direct confession. The investigation concluded without any success. No single culprit was ever identified, and no inmates were charged or punished for the covert modification of the Vermont State Police decals.