A California man sent 20 dozen coconut doughnuts to police officers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as payback for getting kicked out of a Badger football game.
The man traveled from Los Angeles to see the Badgers play Northwestern at Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday. He was assigned a seat in the student section away from his friends, so when he tried to join his friends, officers threw him out, UW-Madison police spokesman Marc Lovicott said Tuesday.
Come Monday, 240 coconut doughnuts mysteriously appeared at police headquarters. The delivery driver gave officers the man's name and Lovicott tracked down an email address and began corresponding with him.
"This was meant as a harmless way to both show general gratitude for the job you do (which is awesome) but slight disdain for my treatment Saturday (which was not so awesome)," the man wrote, according to Lovicott. "Donuts (sic) are awesome, but coconut donuts are not so awesome."
Lovicott declined to release the man's identity because he wasn't arrested and the agency wanted to respect his wishes to remain anonymous. The man refused to give his name to The Associated Press.
It wasn't clear exactly what transpired between the man and the officers at the game.
Lovicott said police tend to be very strict in the student section. Asked if the man was drunk, Lovicott answered by saying he wasn't belligerent and was respectful, calling the incident an "unfortunate misunderstanding."
"This was a teachable moment," Lovicott said. "If we knew more about his circumstances, we would have done things differently to get him with his group."
Lovicott didn't immediately respond to an open records request for the man's name and copies of the emails.
As for the doughnuts, police donated them to the Salvation Army.
