Woman missing hand who was pulled over for texting while driving speaks out

Exclusive U.S. Woman without right hand who was pulled over for texting while driving speaks out: "I felt very uncomfortable" By Cristian Benavides Cristian Benavides Correspondent, CBS Newspath Cristian Benavides is a CBS News correspondent based in Miami. Read Full Bio Cristian Benavides May 28, 2026 / 5:16 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google 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.  @cbsnews A Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputy pulled over a woman in February for using a phone in her right hand. But when she rolled down her window, she revealed she didn't have a right hand. The deputy issued 36-year-old Kathleen Thomas a citation anyway. This week, however, the officer requested the court to dismiss it. CBS News' @Cristian Benavides spoke with Thomas, who said she is glad everything worked out, but added that she hopes for better police training. #news #traffic #police #florida #ticket ♬ original sound - cbsnews "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." In: Florida © 2026 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.