MS Coast police at car wash go viral on TikTok. What’s the story behind the unusual scene?
A viral video on TikTok with millions of views shows Gautier police officers in a surprising place — working at a car wash.
The seven-second long video posted by user @courtneymof3 earlier this month shows police officers operating the car wash, including directing traffic and using a hose tool to spray a pre-soak spray onto vehicles entering the car wash.
“Aint no way the car wash man going to jail so now the police gotta do his job,” the video, which has over 5 million views and half a million likes, reads with Akon’s Locked Up song playing over top of it.
So did police arrest ‘the car wash man’ and start running the car wash in their stead?
According to Gautier Police, yes.
Gautier police officers arrived at Cajun Clean Car Express Wash on Highway 90 on Dec. 1 after receiving a call about two employees fighting, according to Gautier Police Capt. Jonathan Allmand.
Gautier police then arrested the two employees on simple assault charges, leaving the car wash mostly unattended.
“While they were waiting on other employees, the line was backing up and officers decided to help out with the manager’s assistance,” Capt. Allmand said. “Our officers were still serving the community even in this unfortunate aspect, they stepped in to help out instead of having the cars get backed up.”
Allmand says his department’s officers, who will often step in to direct traffic after an accident, likely have never had to step in to run a car wash before.
Allmand also confirmed that Gautier police officers have indeed seen the viral video.
“At first it was funny-ish, but it felt good seeing my officers step in without second guessing, helping with what they can,” Allmand said when asked what he thought of the video.
The video’s viewers also seemed to find the video funny, cracking jokes about tinted windows in the comments.
This story was originally published December 20, 2023 at 12:23 PM.
