By Police1 Staff
LYNDEN, Wash. — A video posted to social media by a confused witness showed what initially appeared to be a slow-speed police pursuit of an elderly woman in a scooter chair, KEPR TV reported.
Several drivers called the local police station for answers Tuesday, June 9 when they saw the woman going 6 miles per hour with a cruiser slowly following behind her.
“What it looked like at the time was this older lady on a Rascal cruising down the road. The cop car with the lights flashing going behind her is what caught my attention,” Andrea Ruth, who filmed the video, told KEPR. “You can’t make that stuff up.”
The department and the trooper cleared up the confusion by explaining that the bizarre scene was not a pursuit, but an act of kindness.
“I wasn’t trying to stop her. I wasn’t trying to detain her. I was just trying to get her back to her home,” Trooper Dave Hintz said to KEPR TV. “I just treated her the way I would’ve wanted somebody to treat my mom.”
The woman got lost after going out for coffee and several people driving on the road began to worry after witnessing the woman swerving on her scooter near the shoulder. That’s when the officer got the call to check on her.
Hintz told KEPR TV that it took more than an hour to get her back to her house.
“Our motto with the State Patrol is service with humility,” Hintz said. “This particular case took a little more patience and humility but I wouldn’t have done it any differently.”