Vancouver Cop Moved By Reactions After Going Undercover in Wheelchair

— -- A Vancouver police sergeant is astounded by the kind treatment he received while posing as a disabled citizen in order to catch would-be criminals.

"I think it was very inspiring," Mark Horsley told ABC News. "It was heartwarming that they showed so much caring compassion. I got close to people with violent criminal pasts, but it was like it was beneath their ethical code to commit a crime such as that."

Horsley said it was a string of violent crimes against people in wheelchairs that sparked his idea to portray a wheelchair-bound man with a brain injury.

"There were 28 offenses over the course of 15 months," he added. "In some cases the victims required hospitalization, so they were quite serious. We had initially two knifepoint robberies they happened about a week apart. We were outraged by having two close together."

After working with a local rehabilitation center to practice simulating his injuries, Horsley was dropped in a low-income area, where he said he set a stage of vulnerability in order to make arrests for assault or robbery.

During the filmed operation, which was produced a week ago, Horsley said there were no arrests, but he had more than 300 interactions with people in the city of Vancouver.

And it was the overwhelming amount of respect and kindness he received in the downtown east side location that he said stood out the most.

"There's a large young man in a red T-shirt in the video," Horsley said. "I look at him and said 'This guy is big enough to pull me out of the wheelchair.' He picked up my camera showing interest. Then we starting talking that he mother was in a wheelchair. At one point, I had visible paper money hanging out of my pouch and he reached down and zipped it up.

"He said be careful, you don’t want to lose that," he added. "It pointed out how a very rare, despicable person would commit a crime like this."

Horsley said each exchange he had with individuals continued to prove pleasantly surprising.

"I told people I couldn’t count and not one person short changed me," he said. "Although I didn't panhandle or beg, I ended up $24.75 ahead, which we donated to the BC rehabilitation foundation — that and a little more money."

Horsley added that the results of the decoy project gave him confidence knowing that there's so much community support in the city of Vancouver.