Photo: Toyota
One female driver passing through Marysville found the perfect excuse to give a Washington State Patrol trooper a hard time by refusing to pull over and comply with his demands: she drove a Prius.
According to a police report of the incident, obtained by HeraldNet, the trooper went in pursuit of the 42-year-old female driver after noticing she had expired tabs on her white hatchback Toyota Prius. He signaled her to pull over, but she “made no reasonable attempt” to do so.
He started tailing her and she eventually pulled off at an intersection. The trooper summoned her to get off the road, which, again, she refused to do. He also urged her to get out of the car, and it fell on deaf ears, as well.
Eventually, the trooper approached the driver on her side of the car and asked her what was wrong. Her answer was probably not something he’d heard before: “I will not [get off the road]. I drive a Prius. I am not pulling over there,” she told him, adding that she couldn’t pull over to the shoulder because her tires “keep popping.”
The woman also told the trooper that she wanted to get to the bank and that she would only come out of her vehicle once she was there, in the parking lot. Presumably, that was something meant to intimidate him, because next thing she told him was “I will own your bank account. I will own your house.”
The trooper had no other solution but to forcefully remove the woman from the car in order to ID and process her. She remained uncooperative, refusing to tell him her name or other information. The report doesn’t mention whether alcohol or other substances could have played a part in her strange behavior.
Either way, she did not get off with just a slap on the wrist. She was taken to the station and put into custody, and eventually charged with “failing to obey instructions, failing to identify herself and for obstruction,” all of them misdemeanors.
She is now out of jail awaiting trial, but she won’t be driving her Prius for another while.
He started tailing her and she eventually pulled off at an intersection. The trooper summoned her to get off the road, which, again, she refused to do. He also urged her to get out of the car, and it fell on deaf ears, as well.
Eventually, the trooper approached the driver on her side of the car and asked her what was wrong. Her answer was probably not something he’d heard before: “I will not [get off the road]. I drive a Prius. I am not pulling over there,” she told him, adding that she couldn’t pull over to the shoulder because her tires “keep popping.”
The woman also told the trooper that she wanted to get to the bank and that she would only come out of her vehicle once she was there, in the parking lot. Presumably, that was something meant to intimidate him, because next thing she told him was “I will own your bank account. I will own your house.”
The trooper had no other solution but to forcefully remove the woman from the car in order to ID and process her. She remained uncooperative, refusing to tell him her name or other information. The report doesn’t mention whether alcohol or other substances could have played a part in her strange behavior.
Either way, she did not get off with just a slap on the wrist. She was taken to the station and put into custody, and eventually charged with “failing to obey instructions, failing to identify herself and for obstruction,” all of them misdemeanors.
She is now out of jail awaiting trial, but she won’t be driving her Prius for another while.
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