Lollipops calm children but they also apparently calmed large, mentally disturbed men who are armed with a razor.

According to the Macon Telegraph, police were called to an apartment complex on Gray Highway Thursday night by a worker who had gone to check on a 38-year-old patient from the River Edge mental health facility. The man, described as 6-foot-4 and weighing more than 350 pounds, had become violent and the social worker couldn't calm him.

First the patient hit an officer in the left hand with a broom and then he threatened him with a razor, according to the news story.

The patient became even more agitated when another officer, armed with a Taser, got to the Overlook Gardens Apartments.

Then one of the officers remembered the lollipops in his patrol car. The man agreed to swap his razor for a handful of suckers.

The patient, finally calmed, was taken to The Medical Center of Central Georgia for treatment.

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Public Service Commission candidate Peter Hubbard gets a hug from Brionté McCorkle, executive director of Georgia Conservation Voters, during an election-night party in Southwest Atlanta on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025.  (Ben Gray for the AJC)

Credit: Ben Gray for the AJC