...Almost 200 trucks have been distributed to police departments since August and requests are pending for an additional 750 trucks. The vehicles, many of which feature machine-gun turrets, are off-limits to private citizens and businesses.


Lucky recipients run from the Ohio State University campus police force to Florence County, S.C., which replaced an armored vehicle from the 1970s that the sheriff department's SWAT team had used for about 15 years. A new armored truck would have cost at least $188,000.


"The price was right because it was free and it fit with what we need it to do," says sheriff's Capt. John Crouse. "It stops bullets. It keeps you from getting shot." Ohio State declined to comment....