Questions raised about Google street view of prosthetic leg on Colorado Springs police unit

When doing a quick Google Maps search of downtown Colorado Springs, you may find yourself stumbling upon an odd sight from July of this year: an errant prosthetic leg leaning against a police unit.

Along Tejon Street near the Subway, two CSPD officers can be seen standing next to the patrol car with the leg propped up. Several Springs neighbors commented on a screenshot posted to a local social media group.

At first glance, we at KRDO asked ourselves, “what in the world is happening in this picture?” We had to get to the bottom of this, so we reached out to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

CSPD spokesperson Lt. Howard Black told KRDO that the officers in the picture were part of the Gold Hill subdivision and were investigating a counterfeit bills incident. They ended up questioning a man with a prosthetic leg, and he took it off and placed it against the car. That man wasn’t charged with any crimes.

But it’s not CSPD’s first run-in with a prosthetic leg.

While trying to get the backstory of the Google Maps image, Black discovered that Gold Hill was involved in two other incidents involving a prosthetic leg in 2016.

One incident involved a suspect who hid drugs in the prosthetic. At another time, a Colorado Springs officer found a prosthetic leg and was able to find the owner and return it.