It’s not local, but this recent piece from CNN.com still makes us shake our heads in wonder. Apparently, a county sheriff in Augusta, Georgia opened a tattoo parlor expressly to sting local oafs–and then just sat back and watched the felonies roll in.

“The tattoo parlor was the brainchild of Richmond County Sheriff Ron Strength, who wanted to snuff out gangs carrying out violent crimes in his east Georgia community,” is how CNN put it–and the operation eventually yielded more than 60 arrests and 300 weapon seizures.

In practice, the ink-ery offered tattoo flash of assorted gang symbols, according to CNN–and eventually came to be a place where “gang members soon began dropping in to sell guns, drugs and even stolen cars,” the website reported.

Which is great–thugs off the streets, etc., and we give Ron Strength mad love for having a great name–but give me a break (and please tell John Stossel I was unaware that phrase is copyrighted).

This set-up was probably perfectly legal, right down to the surveillance cameras, but something in it just reeks of entrapment.

Or maybe that’s just because I’m a fan of tattooing. I guess I’d be about equally incensed if the police infiltrated the Fourth Street business district and started selling Bettie Page lunchboxes, or if they set up shop in a two-door Falcon station wagon at Memory Lane Collector Car Dismantler in Wilmington.

Wonder what Chris Hansen thinks about this.

Tags: georgia, memory lane, police, tattoo, tattoo parlor