VALPARAISO | The records clerks at the Porter County Sheriff's Department ate more than 100 kids meals this past year, each time saving the Barbie dolls, Hulks, Speed Racers and other toys so they could use them as holiday ornaments.

Their year-long plan has now come to fruition as they tied ribbons on the toys and hung them on the holiday tree that greets customers who come to their window for police reports or other records. The clerks even strung the tree with French fry garland and put kids meal boxes under the tree as presents,

At the end of the holiday season, all the toys on the tree, plus numerous other toys that wouldn't fit on the tree, will be given to a charity that needs toys, or will be given to police officers to hand out to children they encounter who are upset because of an accident, family fight or other incident.

"We planned this (toy-themed tree) at the beginning of the year and just went with it. It was a good excuse to eat Happy Meals," said Records Supervisor Barbara Coggins, who worked on the project with clerks Lynn Williams, Sue Adamczewski and Mary Pellegrini.

Coggins said the clerks ate at McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's to get a variety of food and a variety to toys and characters-- everything from Bee Movie, to Star Wars to Wizard of Oz.

This isn't the first time the clerks came up with a tree theme that amused their co-workers and customers. Two years ago, they hung spent Taser cartridges from their tree and wrapped it with police tape.