Posted on 05/30/2026 8:24:04 PM PDT by Red Badger
A Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy pulled over 36-year-old Kathleen Thomas in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, back in February.
His accusation was simple. He said he saw her holding or working a cellphone with her right hand.
There was one detail he had not accounted for. Thomas does not have a right hand.
Her right arm ends at the elbow.
She showed him. He kept going and wrote the citation anyway.
The bodycam footage surfaced this week, and people online noticed fast.
The video shows the deputy lecturing Thomas about distracted driving while she flashes the arm that physically cannot hold a phone.
Fox News shared the bodycam footage with the part of the exchange that made the clip take off:
Fox News @FoxNews "Hand to God" this video is real.
A Florida deputy thought he had caught a distracted driver red-handed.
Then he walked up to the window and discovered the driver...only had one hand.
Kathleen Thomas was pulled over on suspicion of using a cellphone with her right hand while driving, but the stop quickly took an unexpected turn when she explained she doesn't have a right hand.
In the video, the officer asks Thomas to swear "hand to God" that she did not have the phone in her hand.
After video of the encounter went viral, officials dropped the citation over what they called a lack of evidence.
VIDEO AT LINK..............
Here is how Fox News described the moment the stop fell apart:
A Florida sheriff’s deputy is facing intense internet backlash after viral body camera video captured him doubling down and ticketing a woman for using a phone in her right hand — even after she revealed her right arm stops at the elbow.
The roadside hiccup went down in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, in February, when a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy pulled over 36-year-old Kathleen Thomas. The officer insisted she was clutching a cellphone in her right hand.
But body camera footage released this week captures the moment the deputy’s case blew up.
As the officer began lecturing her about the dangers of distracted driving, Thomas did not even bother to argue. Instead, she flashed her right arm, which ends at the forearm.
“So obviously not,” Thomas said, bursting into laughter in the now viral clip. “So you want to just call this a day or…?”
“I don’t want to call a day. You had a hand manipulator,” the deputy said.
“I thought I saw your hand.”
“Well you didn’t,” Thomas replied. The deputy then appeared to backtrack, saying, “With the right hand, perhaps not,” before continuing the stop.
Thomas says she figured it would clear up the second the deputy realized his mistake.
It did not work out that way.
Local10 carried more of the exchange from the bodycam footage:
Video of a traffic stop in Palm Beach County is going viral over an awkward exchange between the driver and a deputy who accused her of holding a phone while driving.
“You drove past me holding a phone with your right hand, manipulating that phone,” the deputy tells 36-year-old Kathleen “Katie” Thomas.
“Obviously not,” Thomas says while laughing and holding up her right arm, showing that she’s missing her right hand.
“So you wanna call this a day?” she asks.
“I don’t want to call this a day. You had a hand up, manipulating,” the deputy responds.
“You just said my right hand,” Thomas counters.
“Well, I thought I saw your right hand,” the deputy says.
“So you didn’t,” Thomas responds.
Thomas posted the bodycam footage on Instagram and TikTok where it gained millions of likes.
In the video, although she shows the deputy she doesn’t have a right hand, the deputy doubled down.
“I’m asking you now; did you or not have your phone in your hand?” the deputy asks.
“I did not,” Thomas responds.
“Hand to God, you didn’t have a phone in your hand?” the deputy asks.
“Hand to God,” Thomas says.
Court records show Thomas was given a $116 citation despite the presented evidence, but it was later dismissed at the request of the deputy involved.
The Telegraph also posted the clip as the story kept spreading beyond Florida:
Post
See new posts Conversation The Telegraph @Telegraph When Kathleen Thomas was pulled over by a police officer who accused her of driving while using her phone in her right hand, she had a very good defence – she didn’t have a right hand.
Ms Thomas, 36, was issued a ticket in February by a sheriff’s deputy working on traffic enforcement in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, newly released police footage shows.
🔗: https://telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/30/driver-accused-of-using-phone-with-her-missing-right-hand/?WT.mc_id=tmgoff_tw_video_with-her-missing-right-hand/
That observation, whatever it was, did not survive contact with reality.
The law the deputy was leaning on exists for a real reason. Florida’s texting-while-driving statute is built to stop people from manually typing into a phone behind the wheel.
Here is the relevant text from The Florida Senate:
316.305 Wireless communications devices; prohibition.—
(1) This section may be cited as the “Florida Ban on Texting While Driving Law.”
(2) It is the intent of the Legislature to:
(a) Improve roadway safety for all vehicle operators, vehicle passengers, bicyclists, pedestrians, and other road users.
(b) Prevent crashes related to the act of text messaging while driving a motor vehicle.
(c) Reduce injuries, deaths, property damage, health care costs, health insurance rates, and automobile insurance rates related to motor vehicle crashes.
(d) Authorize law enforcement officers to stop motor vehicles and issue citations to persons who are texting while driving.
(3)(a) A person may not operate a motor vehicle while manually typing or entering multiple letters, numbers, symbols, or other characters into a wireless communications device.
For the purposes of this section, a motor vehicle that is stationary is not being operated and is not subject to the prohibition in this paragraph.
(b) Paragraph (a) does not apply to a motor vehicle operator who is:
Nobody is arguing the statute is bad. Distracted driving kills people.
The issue is the refusal to back off once the basic facts were sitting right in front of him.
The citation was eventually dismissed. Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Terri Barbera confirmed as much to Fox News.
CBS News reported the deputy himself asked for the ticket to be tossed before Thomas was due in court.
So the system corrected itself, but only after the video did the heavy lifting.
A driver should not need a viral clip and a press cycle to get out of a ticket for an act she is physically incapable of committing.
Thomas comes off as patient and fair in the footage, more bewildered than angry.
The deputy is the one who turned a quick misunderstanding into a story the whole country watched.
The lesson is old and simple. When someone shows you the facts, look at the facts.
This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.
Prosthetics have come a long way but I doubt that any hand can punch digits on a phone. But she could have been using voice commands.
The lesson is to always record your interactions with police.
This dolt could have said “Sorry, my mistake, have a nice day.’
But no, Officer Dork presses the issue because his precious ego got stomped on.
I had a conversation with a similar roid freak co in my town the other day. He was on bicycle patrol along a semi busy street. I stopped him and reminded hi the bikes are to ride with traffic, not against it. I told him that he was expected to be an example to others. The doofus blew me off and told me I was wrong.
“How would she have known that the cop was pulling her over for cell phone usage”
Because she was ... being pulled over AND ... she was doing something illegal ...?
” where in her car would she have hidden the prosthetic limb”
Between the seats? On the floor? It’s not as if he made her get out so he could search the car.
“and which hand would she have used?”
The same hand she would use to remove a prosthetic any time. There’s plenty of time from when she pulls over, cop “calls it in”, and then walks to the car.
I dunno; it was just a theory. She seemed pretty snotty; you just don’t talk to a cop the way she did, and laugh in his face the way she did. And he was being stubborn. It was not a commendable interaction for either one.
“she could have been using voice commands.”
Yep. It’s done all the time. “Hey, Mercedes. Call Jennie mobile.”
I’d love to see a camera shot of her when the cop saw her. True she has no hand to hold the phone with, but I believe she fooled everyone somehow.
“Maam, are you hiding your right hand in the car?”
Some cops are too stupid to be cops....
I can also text with just voice in my Mercedes. Never have to touch the phone.
So does my sister. All the time.
More likely, he just saw her stump and it was a weird shape and his brain filled in what is true 99% of the time — a phone.
This happens a lot.
How does one operate a cell phone with a prosthetic hand?
I'm convinced that if an applicant scores too well on the IQ test, they don't get hired.
Are you stupid?
Yeah--I would act that way too, if someone was that stupid.
And that is not illegal.
“How does one operate a cell phone with a prosthetic hand?”
Bluetooth. I do it all the time in my RAV4. Hit the VOICE button on the steering wheel with your left thumb. Say “Dial John mobile”, and it dials. You have your conversation. Then push the “hang up” button with your thumb on the steering wheel.
Exactly correct. But that is not illegal in any state. And that is NOT what the deputy was accusing her of.
The cop was right.
She cut off her right hand when she was pulled over.
How would she have known that the cop was pulling her over for cell phone usage with her right hand and to remove the prosthetic before he came to her door? Further, where in her car would she have hidden the prosthetic limb and which hand would she have used?Moreover, if she removed and hidden the prosthetic hand, why would the cop request the charges be dismissed before her court appearance?
Occam's razor points to the hubris of the cop to double down on his lies and issue the citation rather than admit his error to her.
Because WAY too many in here push knee-jerk reactions before settling down and thinking clearly.... if they even get to that point. Drives me crazy all the dumb assumptions people can come up with.
I took her to being down to earth, not snotty.
Given that the cop asked for the charges to be dismissed before her court date speaks volumes.
The reason he gave for the dismissal? "Lack of evidence."
She laughed in his face because she had just caught him in a lie.
And, like liars do when they're caught lying, they double down because they won't admit they lied.
Had he cut her loose instead of writing the citation, we never would have heard of this incident.
Now, everyone in the country knows he's a liar.
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