Police in Dunellen, New Jersey, are serious about clamping down on distracted driving. In fact, they’re serious enough that late last month one officer spent his shift disguised as a shrub, planted on the roadside to catch motorists thumbing their phones behind the wheel.

 

The sting ran along the 100 block of North Washington Avenue, a stretch police describe as a busy, pedestrian-heavy slice of downtown. The shrub didn’t work alone. It teamed up with a plain-clothed officer whose T-shirt read “Not A Cop,” and together the pair radioed offenders to colleagues stationed down the road, who handled the actual stops.