2026年5月28日 / 美国东部时间下午5:16 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
一名女子因被指用不存在的右手持手机驾驶而收到罚单，随后她与佛罗里达警方的互动视频在网络爆红。如今她接受哥伦比亚广播公司新闻采访敞开心扉，表示希望这段令人不快的经历能提升社会对肢体差异群体的关注。
36岁的凯瑟琳·托马斯今年2月在佛罗里达州莱克沃思驾车时，被棕榈滩县警长办公室的一名副警长截停。副警长称他看到托马斯右手拿着手机。在确认副警长的说法时，托马斯亮出了自己从肘部以下就缺失的右臂。
托马斯表示，她起初以为只是一场误会。但即便托马斯不可能用右手持手机驾驶，副警长最终还是开了罚单。
“一开始我还觉得‘哦，这事儿挺有意思的，所以我笑了’，”托马斯在独家采访中告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，“更准确地说，我是大笑起来。但后来他既没笑，态度也算不上友好，我才意识到事情不会往轻松的方向发展。”
她补充道：“我不会说这让我紧张不安，但确实有种令人不安的感觉：‘好吧，这到底是怎么回事？我们接下来要做什么？’”
这段爆红的随身摄像头视频显示，副警长持续质问托马斯是否在用右手使用手机。随后该警员要求她“举手对天发誓”，表示自己并未使用电子设备。托马斯举起了右臂。警员随即让她只举起左手。
“我当时就像往常一样，举起手来对天发誓。他不认可这只手作为对天发誓的手，这太讽刺了，毕竟这只手是天生的，”天生右前臂缺失的托马斯说道，“他接着让我用左手发誓，我当时想‘行吧，没问题’。事后回看这段视频，周末拿到随身摄像头 footage 后反复观看，我立刻就意识到自己感到非常不适。”
拿到随身摄像头录像后，托马斯将这段视频分享到了社交媒体。视频迅速走红，获得了数百万次观看，也让她在Instagram和TikTok上收获了数万新粉丝。
她原本计划周三出庭抗辩这张罚单。但周一，开罚单的副警长申请撤销该罚单。
“无论是通过社交媒体，还是他自己反思，他都意识到‘嘿，或许这次处理得不太妥当。或许我当时的处理方式并不正确’，”托马斯说道，“显然他没有选择继续在法庭上追究此事，对此我心存感激。”
棕榈滩县警长办公室在一份声明中告诉哥伦比亚广播公司新闻，该副警长“是基于事发当时的目视观察启动了交通截停程序”。该部门表示，经对州法律进行审查，并“结合全部情况，尤其是我们的罚单软件中对违规行为的标注不够明确”，该罚单已被撤销。
“棕榈滩县警长办公室始终致力于秉持专业、公正的态度，合法执行佛罗里达州的法律法规，”该部门声明称。
托马斯表示，即便案件已撤销，整个过程还是对她的生活造成了影响。托马斯说，“等到这次开庭日期花了很长时间”，她还不得不在原定开庭日期前进行“线上庭审”。她补充道，获取随身摄像头录像的过程十分繁琐。她希望这场风波至少能带来一线希望。
“我生来就是这样。这永远不会改变。我的右手永远没法拿手机，”她说，“我希望人们能明白，肢体差异是正常的。和你外貌不同的人是正常的。所有这些都是正常的。所谓正常，就是你自己觉得最舒服的样子。”
托马斯表示，她并不认为该副警长“是带着恶意针对我”，但她认为该警员并未接受过处理此类情况的培训。她说如果能再和该警员对话，她会问他为什么会做出那样的反应，为什么互动会升级。
“你为什么要让我为这件事举手对天发誓？”她说，“如果你从一开始就打算开罚单，那就直接开罚单好了。”
“我也希望他能为这次互动给自己一些宽容。我们可以回看视频说‘哦，我们本应该这么做，本应该那么做’。谢天谢地，我们俩都平安结束了这次互动，”托马斯说，“我们都没事。除了双方都受到了一些精神伤害之外，没有人受伤。从那以后，问题就变成了，我真的希望他能花点时间想想‘好吧，什么是恰当的，什么是不恰当的？’”
她还向该警员传递了这样的信息：“跟我说说你的想法。跟我解释一下你当时在想什么。我们是怎么走到这一步的？然后从那里开始，看看我们双方能否达成共识，比如，嘿，看看，这就是我们讨论肢体差异的方式。这就是你该如何与他人打交道。这就是你可能不该做的事情，比如让他们举手对天发誓。”
Woman without right hand speaks out about viral traffic stop video: “I felt very uncomfortable”
May 28, 2026 / 5:16 PM EDT / CBS News
The woman whose interaction with Florida police went viral after she was written a ticket alleging she was driving while holding her phone in her nonexistent right hand has opened up about her experience to CBS News, saying she hopes the uncomfortable situation will result in more awareness for those with limb differences.
Kathleen Thomas, 36, was driving in Lake Worth, Florida, in February when she was pulled over by a deputy from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office. The deputy said he had seen her phone in her right hand. After confirming what he said, Thomas revealed her right arm stops at the elbow.
Thomas said she thought it was just a misunderstanding. But despite the impossibility of Thomas using her phone with her right hand while driving, the deputy ultimately wrote the ticket.
“Initially, [I thought], ‘Oh, this is going to be funny, which is why I laughed,’” Thomas exclusively told CBS News. “I cackled, more like it. But then it became very apparent when he did not laugh or interact in like, a friendly manner, that it was not going to go that way.”
She added, “I wouldn’t say it put me on edge, but it definitely left an unsettling feeling of, ‘OK, what is this? Where are we going with this?’”
The viral bodycam video shows the deputy continuing to ask Thomas if she was using her phone with her right hand. Then the officer asks her to swear, “hand to God,” that she hadn’t been using her device. Thomas raises her right arm. The officer responds by telling her to raise her left, and only, hand.
“Immediately, I was being my normal self and threw up my hand to God. He did not recognize that as a sufficient hand to raise to God, which is ironic considering that’s who gave it to me,” said Thomas, who was born with her lower right arm missing. “He proceeds to ask me to do my left, which is like, ‘OK, cool.’ Watching it after the fact, getting that bodycam footage over the weekend and sitting with it, I realized immediately that I felt very uncomfortable.”
After obtaining the bodycam footage, Thomas shared the clip on social media. It quickly went viral, racking up millions of views and bringing her tens of thousands of new followers on Instagram and TikTok.
She planned to appear in court to fight the ticket on Wednesday. But on Monday, the deputy who wrote the ticket asked for it to be dismissed.
“He realized, whether it was through social media or whether it was through his own self-reflection, that, ‘Hey, maybe this wasn’t a great idea. Maybe I didn’t handle it correctly,’” Thomas said. “Obviously he didn’t choose to move forward with fighting it in court, which I was thankful for.”
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office told CBS News in a statement that the deputy “initiated a traffic stop based upon his visual observation at the time of the incident.” The department said the ticket was dismissed after a review of state statutes and “based upon the totality of the circumstances, specifically the lack of clarity on how violations are labeled in our citation software.”
“PBSO remains committed to professionalism, fairness, and the lawful enforcement of Florida statutes,” the department said.
Thomas said that even though the case was dismissed, the process has had an impact on her life. Thomas said it “took a long time to get to this court date,” and said she had to do “online court” before the scheduled date. Getting the bodycam footage was cumbersome, she added. She said she hopes the situation can at least have a silver lining.
“I was born this way. It’s never going to change. It’s never going to hold a phone,” she said. “I would love people to take away is that limb difference is normal. Somebody who looks different than you is normal. All of that is normal. Normal is whoever you’re most comfortable being.”
Thomas said she doesn’t believe the deputy “came at me with malice,” but said she believed he wasn’t trained to deal with a situation like this. She said if she could speak to the officer again, she would ask him why he reacted the way he did and why the interaction escalated.
“Why did you ask me to put my hand to God over the situation?” she said. “If you knew going into it that you were going to write the citation, just write the citation.”
“And I would hope that he gives himself grace for the interaction. We can look at it in the videos and say, ‘Oh, we should have done this different, we should have done that different.’ Thankfully, both of us walked away from that interaction,” Thomas said. “We were both OK. Nobody was harmed other than some emotional damage, I think on both parts. From there it just becomes a matter of, I really hope he takes the time to think about ‘OK, what is appropriate, what’s inappropriate?’”
She also offered this message to the officer: “Explain to me your side. Explain to me what you were thinking. How did we get to this point? And then from there, kind of just see where our two sides can kind of come together and say, Hey, look, here’s how we discuss limb difference. Here’s how you address somebody. Here’s things that you probably shouldn’t do, like make them raise their hand to God.”