The police who stopped José Galvan and Juan Luna as they drove down a Cook County, Illinois, street may have entertained notions of their photos on all the front pages as they boasted a nab of $660,000 (U.S.) worth of pot and the arrest of the two traffickers. Then the lab tests came back. That 220 pounds of marijuana that the men were hauling, all neatly bound like bales of hay? It was hay. More specifically, the hay from the nativity scene at a Roman Catholic church, where the men are parishioners.

Chicago police say they were acting on an anonymous tip. Peter Vilkelis, lawyer for the two, suspects that “somebody must have seen these two big bales, saw the men were Mexican and made an assumption.”

Charges have been dismissed, but Vilkelis isn’t content, saying his clients were “treated like cartel drug traffickers,” and suggesting a civil suit against police might be in order. :

» Scott Saxon