{"id":289965,"date":"2026-05-30T10:20:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289965\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T10:20:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T10:20:24","slug":"police-ticket-florida-woman-without-right-hand-for-driving-with-phone-in-right-hand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/289965\/","title":{"rendered":"Police Ticket Florida Woman Without Right Hand for Driving With Phone in Right Hand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"0\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">A Florida woman was recently issued a ticket for using her cellphone with her right hand while driving. However, that accusation had a serious flaw: The woman who received the ticket does not now have, nor has she ever had had, a right hand.<\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"1\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">According to a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/kathleen-thomas-texting-while-driving-right-hand-police-bodycam\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/kathleen-thomas-texting-while-driving-right-hand-police-bodycam\/\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"CBS News\" data-node-id=\"1.1\" class=\"body-link css-r8qnsp emevuu60\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CBS News<\/a>, the woman who received the ticket is named Kathleen Thomas. She was driving in Lake Worth, Florida back in February when she was stopped by a deputy from the Palm Beach Sheriff&#8217;s Office. Thomas recently shared the bodycam footage of that traffic stop on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/slightlyoff.balance\/reels\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/slightlyoff.balance\/reels\/\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"her Instagram\" data-node-id=\"1.3\" class=\"body-link css-r8qnsp emevuu60\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">her Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\" target=\"_blank\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"Tik Tok accounts\" data-vars-ga-product-id=\"0b0a5837-fa4a-4901-82d6-4469eb2d9ced\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-node-id=\"1.5\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\" data-product-url=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\" data-affiliate=\"false\" data-affiliate-network=\"\" data-fp-affiliate-inline-link=\"false\" data-fp-affiliate-button-link=\"false\" data-vars-ga-product-price=\"$0.00\" data-vars-ga-product-retailer-id=\"a8ac8760-4a14-48cd-b5ad-949d77b0477a\" data-vars-ga-link-treatment=\"(not set) | (not set)\" class=\"body-link product-links css-r8qnsp e1aq0z090\" data->Tik Tok accounts<\/a>; the video has since gone viral as it appears more like a Saturday Night Live skit than an actual traffic stop. <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"3\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The video opens with the officer explaining to Thomas that the police were doing an operation to cut down on distracted driving and that she was spotted using a cell phone with her right hand. Thomas immediately shows the officer that she doesn\u2019t have a right hand. She laughs and says to the officer, \u201cObviously not. So, do you want to just call this a day?\u201d <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"4\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">However, the officer is undeterred, and continues to insist he saw Thomas use a phone with her right hand. She again shows the officer that doing so would be impossible for her. Still, he presses, asking her if she used the phone with her hand, then asking her to &#8220;raise your hand to God&#8221; to swear she didn\u2019t have a phone in her hand. She raises her right arm, which, again, does not have a hand; the officer then asks her to raise her other arm, which she does. He then requests her driver\u2019s license, registration and insurance; she complies, but is still issued a ticket for using a handheld device. <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"5\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">Thomas, an adaptive athlete, was born without her lower right arm, but she clearly is not missing her sense of humor\u2014or a level head. She took the incident in stride; when she had her day in court over the incident, Thomas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\/video\/7644713000108068109?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=7449764902751012398\" target=\"_blank\" data-vars-ga-outbound-link=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\/video\/7644713000108068109?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=7449764902751012398\" data-vars-ga-ux-element=\"Hyperlink\" data-vars-ga-call-to-action=\"posted another video about it\" data-vars-ga-product-id=\"322dbf2c-aee6-4cbc-9274-51791997f3fc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-node-id=\"5.1\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\/video\/7644713000108068109?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=7449764902751012398\" data-product-url=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@slightlyoff.balance\/video\/7644713000108068109?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=7449764902751012398\" data-affiliate=\"false\" data-affiliate-network=\"\" data-fp-affiliate-inline-link=\"false\" data-fp-affiliate-button-link=\"false\" data-vars-ga-product-brand=\"slightlyoff.balance\" data-vars-ga-product-price=\"$0.00\" data-vars-ga-product-retailer-id=\"c5035f97-0a46-48e5-9acc-33d4b920a819\" data-vars-ga-product-sem3-brand=\"slightlyoff.balance\" data-vars-ga-link-treatment=\"(not set) | (not set)\" class=\"body-link product-links css-r8qnsp e1aq0z090\" data->posted another video about it<\/a> on her social media accounts, explaining that the case was dismissed for lack of evidence. <\/p>\n<p data-journey-content=\"true\" data-node-id=\"7\" class=\"css-6wxqfj emevuu60\">The entire situation sounds absurd, yet for Thomas, it was a very real traffic stop. In the end, common sense finally prevailed, but not before the deputy managed to issue one of the most unbelievable distracted driving tickets we&#8217;ve ever heard of.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Florida woman was recently issued a ticket for using her cellphone with her right hand while driving.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26304,122619,26306,28,30,29,109645,26305,122618],"class_list":["post-289965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-3de45600-8f23-447b-bf6e-e46158a197bc","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-shorttitle-woman-fined-for-phone-in-non-existent-hand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}