Ripping Up A Parking Ticket In Front Of Police May Get You Tased, Even If You’re Pregnant

If you’re upset with the parking ticket you’ve just received, it’s rarely a good idea to rip it up. It’s certainly a bad idea to rip that ticket up in front of the police officer who just wrote it. Ask the pregnant Chicago woman who says police used a stun gun on her after she tore up her citation.

Police ticketed the woman, who is only a few weeks away from giving birth, for allegedly parking in a handicap spot outside a Walgreens.

The woman claims she had merely pulled into the spot to briefly console her young daughter and was upset when the police took the opportunity to issue the violation.

“The police came behind her, and she said they blocked her in,” the woman’s sister tells CBS Chicago. “She asked them, were they writing her a ticket, and they told her yes… She tried to explain to them what happened, as far as her little girl getting out of the car, and her trying to calm her down and console her, and the guy gave her a ticket for $200. She ripped the ticket up, tore it in half, and threw it on the ground.”

The police report claims the woman not only ripped up the ticket but threw it in the officer’s face before attempting to drive away.

She tells a different version to CBS Chicago: “I got scared, and closed the door. I didn’t hit him. I didn’t mean to harm him, or anything. He Tasered me through the window.”

The woman was taken to the hospital and claims that cops made fun of her while she was being treated.

“They were laughing. They said … I know she’s pregnant. Then one of the other officers said I deserve it. Another officer said, ‘Go get Jesse Jackson,'” she recalls. “They were all laughing, like it was so funny.”

Regarding the use of a stun gun on a pregnant woman, a police department rep says, “you can’t always tell if somebody’s pregnant. You want to use it where you’re overcoming an assault, or preventing escape.”

In addition to the parking ticket, the woman has been charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest and simple assault. Her boyfriend was also charged with resisting arrest and simple assault.

CBS reports that the soon-to-be-born baby appeared unharmed.

Meanwhile, the city’s Independent Police Review Authority is looking into the woman’s complaint of excessive force.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.