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A video has gone viral after an influencer and athlete shared bodycam footage of her traffic stop.
The bad news — or, at least, the weird news is that she’s accused of something that’s physically impossible.
In the video, the officer accuses her of scrolling through her phone with her right hand while driving. But she doesn’t have a right hand.
She’s an amputee. Instead of apologizing, the officer still issued the ticket, nearly forcing her to come to court months later.
She had a rock-solid alibi
On February 11, a Palm Beach County police deputy pulled over Kathleen Thomas.
Katie is a 36-year-old adaptive athlete. She is also an influencer.
She does not have a right hand. Like many disabled folks, she is still able to do many things — such a drive. She just does it a little differently than someone with two hands might.
Back in February, the deputy explained that his department was doing extra enforcement surrounding distracted driving. He claimed to have seen her holding a phone in her right hand.
Someone holding a phone in their right hand would likely be distracted. However, Katie had a pretty good alibi.
As you can see from the bodycam footage — first released to Katie as discovery, then distributed on social media to widespread laughter — the officer walks up to issue the citation.
Even though Katie shows that she does not have a right hand, the officer was undeterred.
Now, this could have gone worse. Some traffic stops end in deadly shootouts, after all.
But the deputy persisted, issuing a citation — a $116 ticket, under Florida law.
He even bizarrely asked her to swear “hand to god” that she had not been holding a phone. That was a poor choice of words.
I have been uncontrollably wheezing at this all morning https://t.co/o8BLtH7Lcd pic.twitter.com/PkVDApE95D
— Grip Skylark 💕✨ (@talleyberrybaby) May 27, 2026
Case dismissed!
CBS12 has confirmed that Katie will not, in fact, have to pay a fine for a traffic violation that would only be possible through telekinesis.
(Point of order, Florida law doesn’t actually outlaw holding a phone. She would have had to have been using it, such as to text someone, to run into legal trouble.)
As it turned out, she did not even have to make her argument in court.
The officer who made the traffic stop requested that the charge be dropped.
Katie would have had to show up to court this week. Instead, her citation has been dismissed without issue.
Distracted driving does endanger — and end — lives.
That didn’t start with the invention of the cellphone, but mobile devices definitely make it a more widespread phenomenon.
But, obviously, Katie wasn’t endangering anyone. (And if she was distracted, it’s very unlikely that it could be proven in court.)
Changing driver behavior requires publicity and education. Otherwise, an enforcement blitz just looks like a cash grab from a police department.
Katie’s case wasn’t really about driving safety or disability rights. It came down to a particularly absurd example of someone refusing to back down in the moment. That’s a very human thing to do, but it’s also very funny.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thehollywoodgossip.com
