Calling someone a “neep” has always been a popular Scottish put down, but now it has even caught on with the police as they try to sow the seeds of public awareness about criminal activity.
Police are used to seeing extremes of criminal behaviour, both daft or serious.
But now officers in the north-Aberdeenshire force area, around Banff and Buchan, have started naming their “Neep of the Week”.
It is usually a petty criminal who has done something particularly silly, which has wasted valuable police time and caused a nuisance to the public.
It all began when a grown man fled a Fraserburgh supermarket with 20 packs of World Cup cards, but police were highly unimpressed by his “commitment” to the game and tweeted their thoughts.
There have been no shortage of other wrong-doers laying down an unintentional claim to inherit the Neep of the Week title, sadly.
The police tactic has been such a hit with the public that they are keeping the “award” going.
Joking aside, it does help the police reach an audience that they might struggle to engage with normally as well as alerting the general public to the sort of ludicrous things going on under their noses – which we are all paying for in one way or another.