University of Wisconsin Police Department employees were greeted with a surprise delivery of 20 dozen toasted coconut donuts Monday morning. The mysterious gift arrived anonymously at UWPD headquarters, the elusive sender withholding name and reason alike for the monumental offering.
UWPD officers were intrigued.
“The fact that they were all covered in coconut was just odd,” Marc Lovicott, UWPD spokesperson, said. “That’s a lot of donuts to send, and the fact that they were all covered in coconut was just fishy to us.”
Lovicott said the unpopular topping dissuaded their consumption by UWPD staff, who began to suspect the delivery was some sort of statement.
“Personally, I thought it was a brilliant way to get our attention,” he said.
Lovicott discovered the sender’s name by way of the delivery employee, and reached out to the elusive dessert donor via email. As Lovicott suspected, the mysterious benefactor in fact used the treats to address a dissatisfactory incident he had with a UWPD officer during Saturday’s football game against Northwestern.
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In the resulting email correspondence, the man said he was visiting Madison to attend the game with a dozen friends from out of town, and had trouble with the student section seating due to unfamiliarity with the system. Having been assigned a different section than his companions, he attempted to migrate to section P to regroup, but encountered resistance from UWPD.
The visitor said in the email UWPD officers informed him this was not an option, and told him he would be ejected from Camp Randall for the remainder of the day. When the visitor proposed he return to his originally-assigned section, UWPD officers refused and insisted he be escorted out.
“I think if we took a step back and tried to analyze the situation a little bit more, we probably could have handled it a little bit differently if we understood the whole circumstances,” Lovicott said.
Lovicott and the unnamed man continued this cordial email exchange discussing the dissatisfactory incident, and agreed the situation was mishandled.
UWPD donated the 240 donuts to the Salvation Army Women’s Shelter Monday afternoon, but the lesson of the delectable pastries lingers.
“I think something like this forces us to take a breath and really take in what’s going on and try to reevaluate the situation,” Lovicott added. “This might be a good reminder that sometimes things aren’t as clear-cut.”
Lovicott ended the exchange on good terms with the anonymous confection slinger, offering the man a ride-along with a UWPD officer by way of an apology.
You can read the email exchange between the two parties here.
