Don’t try this. Really. — Dan

Quitting smoking is hard. Really hard. The CDC estimates that about two-thirds of adult smokers want to quit, but only about 7% who try in any given year actually succeed. There are nicotine patches, gums, lozenges, prescription medications, hypnosis, acupuncture, and countless apps designed to help people kick the habit. Most people try multiple methods before finding one that works — if they ever do.

Etta Mae Lopez tried something different. She slapped a cop.

On a Tuesday in May 2013, Lopez, a 31-year-old Sacramento, California resident, stood outside the Sacramento County jail for several hours. She wasn't there to visit anyone or post bail. She was waiting for a deputy to come outside. When Deputy Matt Campoy finished his shift and walked out of the building, Lopez — all five feet, one inch of her — blocked his path. As NBC News reported, she suddenly stepped into him and slapped him across the face. When Campoy grabbed her and brought her back inside the jail, she slapped his arm for good measure.

Once safely in handcuffs, Lopez explained her reasoning. She told Campoy that she had deliberately targeted him because he was in uniform — she wanted to make absolutely certain she was striking a law enforcement officer. The goal wasn't violence for its own sake, and she wasn’t targeting Campoy specifically. But she was going after the police. As Campoy told The Sacramento Bee, "She knew that the only way to quit smoking was to go to jail because they don't allow tobacco in the jail." Lopez had waited all day for a deputy to emerge, knowing that assaulting one would guarantee enough time behind bars to break her addiction.

The plan worked exactly as she had hoped. Lopez pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery on a peace officer and was immediately sentenced to 63 days in jail, plus five additional days for violating probation from a 2010 drunk driving conviction. Among the conditions of her sentence, according to CBC News: an order to have "no contact" with deputies. (Of course, if the goal is to go to jail, that’s hardly a deterrent.)

That said, most others — including anti-smoking leaders — weren’t fold of Lopez’s strategy. Kimberly Bankston-Lee, one such advocate, told CBS News that she “agrees that coldcocking a cop isn't the best way to quit cold turkey,” while acknowledging that "if [smoking] led somebody to do something like that to quit, that lets us know in the community that we have a real problem." Others, like Lopez’s neighbor and smoking buddy, agreed, telling CBS that “There's easier ways to stop smoking than hitting a cop “and “that's not the way I want to quit.”

As for Deputy Campoy, he took the whole thing in stride. "I've been telling everybody that I have a new Irish name," he told reporters. "Nick O'Derm."

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Today’s Bonus fact: In or around 2009, some smokers were given a new reason to quit — Apple wouldn’t fix their computers. As PC World reported, Apple was “telling at least some customers that the amount of cigarette smoke residue inside their computers makes it unsafe for the company to perform warranty service on them, despite the lack of such a clause in the company’s warranty agreement.” Reports of similar incidents persisted for a few years, but haven’t popped up again in about a decade.

From the Archives: How Smoking Gave PEZ a Boost: The candies were originally designed to help smokers quit.

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And thanks! — Dan