Unexpectedly, a picture I snapped last week became viral on facebook, the stats below are “likes” and “shares” I can see directly, there were a lot of duplicates copied and uploaded separately by other people, for which I have no way to count them. On top of that, the picture was picked (copied from facebook) by mainstream traditional media, TV and newspapers like Realitatea, ProTV, Gândul, EVZ or RTV.

What was it about? Street garbage and people discarding it is a big problem in Romania and people eating sunflower seeds and spitting them on the ground are a special case. Friday evening, walking in the nearby I.O.R. park I assisted to an unexpected episode: a couple of local police officers confronted a group of youngsters practicing this bad habit and offered them a choice: take a broom and clean the place or pay a fine. This is original and funny and also quite unexpected, since the police rarely react to such things. I posted the image on social networks and the rest is history, a lot of people got enthusiastic over the police action.

There is one more side of the story, the police officers were not alone, they were accompanied by a couple of agents working for the private company hired by the park administration. One of those agents asked me not to show the logo of their company, which was printed on their shirts. I listened and excluded them from the frame. Their excess of secrecy made the company miss a huge free advertising opportunity.

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