St. Pete officer gets creative with tasty treats

Inside a police officer's successful side hustle

Allie Corey reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - A community service and SWAT officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department is turning another passion of his, baking, into a successful business.

Officer Keith Dunigan says he knows he's not the cookie cutter baker you see on TV shows or in magazines.

"That's a question I get all the time," Dunigan laughed. "People want to know, ‘why did you start baking and how did you start baking?’ You know, most men hunt and fish and I'm in here. With my KitchenAid."

"I love being a police officer," Dunigan continued. "I love getting to go out there and do something different every day. I love being on a SWAT team and getting, you know, a little bit of that action as well. But coming in here and just baking, I mean it's therapeutic for me. I'd come in here and turn on my music and before you know it, I've baked a million cookies in here."

The baking started as a creative outlet for Dunigan. He grew up watching his grandma and mom cooking in the kitchen, so he was always curious about confectionery.

"I used to just watch YouTube videos and try to mimic what I saw people doing in a kitchen," Dunigan said.

It was a lot of trial and error. The guys in his SWAT unit were his first taste testers.

"So I make cookies for 40 or 50 guys and they all love them," explained Dunigan. "They gave me a hard time about doing this stuff, you know, but at the same time, it's like they know that I'm good at it."

Today, he estimates he’s sold close to 4,000 Cookies through his business, Cop a Cookie. It’s a fitting name for a guy who wears an apron and a uniform.

Everything you see on his website, he does himself. That includes his popular S’mores cookie. He weighs all his ingredients to make sure the mixture is precise. Once baked, the cookies cool, get packaged, and delivered or shipped for free.

"I've shipped to every single state except Washington state. So if you know anybody in Washington state that wants cookies, let me know," laughed Dunigan.

What makes his cookies unique is their bulk. Each one weighs 125 grams, or a third of a pound. He says he doesn’t keep any secrets because he learned a lot of what he knows from others.

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"I don't roll the dough, I pad it together, and then I put it in the freezer, preferably overnight. Two hours will do good as well," Dunigan said.

If you’re wondering whether he eats the cookies, the answer is no.

"If I'm trying a new recipe, of course. I have to try it before I hand it to somebody. But no, I don't normally eat the cookies that I make. I may have just made those recipes a million times and I'm confident you know, in the outcome," he said.