A run-of-the-mill traffic stop by Tacoma police turned into a bit of a circus Sunday night.
An officer first tried to pull the car over about 9 p.m. after seeing the driver run a red light at East 56th Street and Portland Avenue, police spokeswoman Loretta Cool said Monday.
The woman driving the car pulled over for a minute but then got back on the road.
She ran another red light, and the officer tried to pull her over again. This time she stayed put long enough for the officer to approach her window and ask for her driver’s license.
She didn’t have one, or any other kind of identification, Cool said. She couldn’t recall her last name and, when the officer inquired about her date of birth, she demurely reminded him he shouldn’t ask a lady’s age.
Asked why she’d run the red lights, she told the officer she was trying to keep up with her husband’s car, Cool said.
When the officer briefly returned to his patrol car to try to figure out who the woman was, she took off at 20 miles per hour. Then she turned on the car’s hazard lights and eventually pulled over. Again.
Then the officer looked in the rear-view mirror and saw what the woman had said was her husband’s car speeding toward him and trying to box in the patrol car.
The officer took evasive action, pulled his gun out and switched on the car’s spotlight. He ordered the man and woman to put their hands where he could see them. Instead, the man drove off. Police searched the area but didn’t find him.
The woman was booked into Pierce County Jail on suspicion of driving without a license and obstructing a police officer. She told police the man in the other car was, in fact, her mechanic, but said she didn’t know his name.
stacia.glenn@thenewstribune.com253-597-8653
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