This Christmas Spirit Comes with a Hooker

A Dutch man recently caught with a broken headlight and a street hooker in his car got off easy, so to speak.

Stopped by the cops en route to a pay-for rendezvous, the man begged the officers to let him pay the ticket in cash so the indictment wouldn't be sent to his home (where, presumably, his wife would find out that he was looking to score on the side of the road in Utrecht's well-known red-light district).

Why did the 5-0 let him off? (After the jump)

"In the spirit of Christmas...the man was allowed to leave the police station ($75) poorer but with an easy heart," read a statement by Utrecht police released last Friday.

Putting aside the obvious caveat that picking up street-side hookers is a good way to score a wide variety of unpleasant diseases and psychological issues, this seems like the kind of situation that could only really happen in the reefer-mad Netherlands. The locals there are a little more live-and-let-live about the sex trade (regulated prostitution in brothels is actually legal, even though these street-side pickups are not).

Compare that experience with the city of Denver's approach to prostitution: Since 2002, Denver has been using what they call "Johns TV" to broadcast video clips, on both a local cable channel and the Internet, of men picking up prostitutes. Not the best way to get your 15 minutes of fame.