Woman Arrested For Chewing Candy Bar In D.C. Metro Station (Grab the mace!)

WFTV ^ | 7/29/04

[Doctor Wu]

Woman Arrested For Chewing Candy Bar In D.C. Metro Station

Woman Handcuffed, Held For Three Hours

POSTED: 7:21 am EDT July 29, 2004

WASHINGTON -- You can't eat and ride in the nation's capital.

A Maryland woman said a transit officer in Washington, D.C., handcuffed and held her for three hours after she finished a candy bar at a Metro station.

Stephanie Willett told The Washington Post she was heading into a station while eating a PayDay bar when a transit officer told her to finish it before entering.

They both agree that she put the last bit in her mouth -- but she says the officer followed her inside the station. After she made a comment, Willett said the officer searched, handcuffed and arrested her.

Willett was released several hours later after paying a $10 fine. A Metro spokeswoman said the woman was arrested for ignoring a warning.

[Bikers4Bush]

Out of control. She should sue and the cop should be fired.

[ICX]

After she made a comment, Willett said the officer searched, handcuffed and arrested her.

Did she call him a 'stupid cracker' like the couple at the movie theater?

[CindyDawg]

Wonder what the comment was :')

[A. Pole]

A Maryland woman said a transit officer in Washington, D.C., handcuffed and held her for three hours after she finished a candy bar at a Metro station.

We should feel safer.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Man, if the government went after crack and heroin the way they do candy bars, we'd have this War on Drugs over in a heartbeat.

[apillar]

This is all the talk on the DC radio stations. The comment she made to the cop was, "Why don't you stop following me and go find some real criminals?" at which point she was thrown up against the wall, handcuffed and taken to the police station for 3 hours, for should have been a $10 written citation.

This isn't the first time this has happened, last year a 12 year old girl was arrested for eating french fries on the way home from school.

[Hatteras]

Did she chew with her mouth open? Because if she did she should be arrested.

Seriely though, dollars to doughnuts that they askd her to fold the wrapper back up and put it in her purse until she was out of the station and she started acting like those stupid, lowlife, idiots you see on every episode of "COPS".

[mountaineer]

the woman was arrested for ignoring a warning.

??? The officer told her to finish the candy bar; she did. How did she ignore the warning? What lunacy.

[petercooper]

did the PayDay bar replace the $100,000 bar?

[Alberta's Child]

If this ever happened to me, I'd spend the rest of the summer leaving candy bars to melt on every Metro platform in Washington.

Or maybe they wouldn't really be candy bars . . .

[rabidralph]

An excerpt from wtop.com AM-1500 [Police spokeswoman] Hansen says Stephanie Willett, 45, of Bowie, Md., had been warned several times not to eat in the Metro.

The scientist from the Environmental Protection Agency was finishing up the PayDay candy before entering the station when she was arrested.

"She would not stop to allow the policewoman to issue a citation. And, this could have all been averted if the woman had first of all, not violated the law. It is against the law to eat, drink, smoke in the Metro system," Hanson says. "Transit police officers do have the uncomfortable task of enforcing those minor violations."

Willett made fun of the officer during the incident, asking the officer "Why don't you go and take care of some real crime?"

[rabidralph]

The other warning was to stop walking so that the officer could issue the citation. She kept on walking.

[chicagolady]

Well she should have told the cop she was an illegal alien (Felon) and they would have let her go.

[Chad Fairbanks]

Willett made fun of the officer during the incident, asking the officer "Why don't you go and take care of some real crime?"

That's not making fun of him - she's telling the truth. What's the crime rate like in D.C.? Maybe they should suspend the whole "We'll nail you if you eat candy on the train" laws until they get the real crime under control. Just a thought.

[.38sw]

I guess she failed the attitude test, so she was thrown against a wall and cuffed. Makes me feel safer already.

[twigs]

dollars to doughnuts that they askd her to fold the wrapper back up and put it in her purse until she was out of the station and she started acting like those stupid, lowlife, idiots

That's my guess too. The DC Metro has strict rules about eating and when I lived there, people would try to break the rules and whine when they were caught. This has been going on for years. It always reminded me of a child whose mother told her to stay indoors and she continued to inch her foot out the door to see how far she could get it before Mom snapped.

[Revolting cat!]

Good! You oughta see the trash, you oughta sit on the wet seats, listen to the ghetto blasters. Oh, I see, rules are for other people!

[Chemist_Geek]

So, she ought to be charged with fleeing & eluding, or whatever the equivalent is. She failed to obey a lawful order - stop to receive the ticket.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

On the bright side, Ms. Willett is famous now.