LAPD Uses Zombie Parody Video to Highlight Burglary Problem - East Idaho News
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LAPD Uses Zombie Parody Video to Highlight Burglary Problem

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Getty 111913 Zombies?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1384901708576Daniel Bendjy / Getty Images(LOS ANGELES) — It’s been an urgent question sweeping the nation in recent years — can the police keep us safe from a zombie apocalypse? The newest video from the Los Angeles Police Department overwhelmingly says, “Yes.”

“Invasion of the Zombie Bandits!” is a seven-minute video posted on YouTube by the LAPD. And while your traditional on-screen zombies usually have a hankering for brains, these zombies have an insatiable appetite for valuables kept in cars.

“Whatever you call them — people, zombies, bad guys, creeps, criminals,” Captain Jeffrey Bert of the LAPD says in the video. “Breaking into your cars, stealing your stuff — it happens over 400 times a week.”

Police departments across the country consistently distribute tips on how to avoid vehicle break-ins. But in this unique public service announcement, LAPD officers detain the kleptomaniacal zombies, find alcohol on them (“Oh, it’s a zombie party,” one of the officers exclaims) and with a little help from a doughnut-wielding detective, arrest the zombies for burglary.

“Lock your stuff, hide your stuff and you’re going to keep your stuff,” Bert says in the video, shortly before being asked what should be done with a severed zombie arm.

Among the fun asides and detailed makeup (the LAPD says it used donations from its Boosters Association to make the video) is a real message. Bert said it was borne of his own failures.

“We’ve posted videos on YouTube before,” Bert told ABCNews.com on Tuesday. “In three months we had 46 hits. We put this out and in two days we’ve had more than 3,000.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, the video had logged more than 4,000 views.

The idea for the video came from a combination of places, including talented people in the department, Bert said, noting that makeup effects were pulled off by an officer who works as a makeup artist on television shows when she’s off-duty.

While the LAPD is a traditional organization, Bert said this is a non-traditional way of getting the word out.

“It was a calculated risk, but it was really about getting the message across,” Bert said.

That message is simple. The LAPD believes you can cut down on automobile break-ins by simply locking your vehicle and hiding your valuables.

“If you just lock your car, you reduce your chances by about 30 percent of having people break into your car,” Bert says in the video, offering what could quite possibly be the simplest way to avoid a zombie apocalypse of the vehicular kind.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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