‘Hand to God’: Florida traffic stop goes viral for all the wrong reasons

A police officer who accused a Florida woman of being on her phone while driving doubled down after realizing she only has one hand.

A traffic stop in Florida is drawing millions of views online after a sheriff’s deputy repeatedly accused a woman of holding a cellphone with her right hand – a hand she does not have.

The now viral body camera footage captures an increasingly awkward exchange between a deputy with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Kathleen (Katie) Thomas, of Lake Worth Beach, Fla., an adaptive athlete and social media influencer.

The stop began with the deputy insisting they had seen Katie driving while holding and manipulating a cellphone with her right hand.

“You drove past me holding the phone, manipulating the phone. I mean I saw you holding your phone,” the deputy says in the footage.

Katie appears confused before raising her right arm.

“Obviously not,” she replies with a tense laugh. “So, you want to just call this a day?”

But the revelation did little to change the deputy’s position.

The video shows the deputy continued insisting they had seen Katie using a phone with her right hand.

“You just saw my right hand,” Katie responds.

Even after seeing the missing hand, the deputy presses the issue again.

“Did you or did you not hold a phone with your right hand?” the deputy asks.

“I did not. I did not,” Katie replied.

The exchange reaches its most surreal moment when the deputy asks whether she can swear she wasn’t holding a phone with her right hand.

Katie then raises her right arm and delivers what has become the internet’s favourite line from the encounter.

“Hand to God.”

The footage was posted by Katie on her Instagram and TikTok accounts, where it has since amassed millions of likes and sparked widespread discussion online.

While the deputy ultimately issued Katie a US$116 citation, court records show the ticket was later dismissed at the deputy’s request.

The video has since generated headlines and countless comments across social media, with many viewers expressing disbelief at the back-and-forth.

For many, the exchange is a reminder that sometimes the most difficult thing to argue with isn’t a witness, a video or even physical evidence, but a first impression.

And in this case, the missing hand was apparently the last thing to arrive at the scene.