If you haven’t heard this story about cops and firefighters — you’ll thank me for bringing it to your attention. If you have, you won’t mind being reminded because this one is special.

Sometimes pranks are so simple but also so spot on and the retaliation so on the mark, they rise to the level of masterpieces of humor. And when they involve police officers and firefighters, it’s even better (especially since I’m a retired cop and my wife is a retired firefighter).

Well, such was the case in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Seems the fire department got itself a new toy: a drone. And they wouldn’t be good ol’ fashioned American firefighters if they didn’t want to test out any new gadget — like, right now! Anyway, a firefighter asked if the drone could carry something.

Firerescue1.com reported that fire Chief Eric Hendrick joked, perhaps while glancing at the police station next door, when he asked, “Maybe a doughnut?”

An assistant fire chief pointed out, “You know, we’ve got a doughnut.”

They got some string and tethered a glazed doughnut to the drone.

During the initial test flight, firefighters saw police Chief Kenny Kavanaugh sitting in his car in the police department parking lot.

As fire Sgt. Justin Ames described it, the drone flew “up and down, left and right,” until the suspended doughnut hovered in front of the chief’s windshield.

Reportedly, a police captain asked the chief if he should shoot it down. Which brought a response from a firefighter, who quipped that he wanted to shoot it down so he could get the food.

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Now, what would a story like this be without some good-natured retaliation?

Related: She’s Pro-Police and Now Her Life Is in Jeopardy

Not to be outdone, the cops erected a mobile traffic reader board on the street in front of the fire station. During the day it read, “SHHHH … FIREMEN SLEEPING.”

At night it read, “Honk if you love FIREMEN!!”

And you know people love firefighters.

All of these public safety shenanigans culminated in a worthy fundraiser — collecting nearly $3,000 for an important town construction project.

Steve Pomper is an OpsLens contributor and retired Seattle police officer. He has served as a field training officer, on the East Precinct Community Police Team, and as a precinct mountain bike coordinator. He has a BA in English language and literature. This OpsLens piece is used by permission.

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