WhitehouseTexas.com

On Saturday Dec. 31, started to be a beautiful day for my husband, John and me. After running an errand, I told my husband it was just too nice to stay at home so we decided to take a drive.

Having not been to Lake Tyler in a couple of years and with all the dry weather we thought it would be a nice drive.

We went to Lake Tyler by way of Farm-to-Market Road 346 going to the marina area to see the lake. We stopped and watched some ducks. Drove on around to the other side to watch some geese. It was really nice.

Then we drove on around the lake. There are so many new homes and developments around the lake that we had not seen.

As we were driving, we saw a “For Sale By Owner” sign and decided to see what kind of homes had been built. We were driving very slow, not breaking the law or doing anything wrong. Most of the houses off the main streets were in culdesacs. As we were leaving, a Whitehouse Police car came up behind us. He followed us into one of the culdesacs and out. He continued to follow us as we drove on around the lake. When we came to a stop sign where the road ends he turned on his patrol lights to stop us. My husband stopped and turned off the car. The policeman did not get out of his car. We just sat there and the police sat behind us with the light going.

In about three or four minutes, another police car arrived. He pulled up somewhere by the other police car. All four officers got out of their cars at this point.

They spoke to each other and then one officer came up the car and asks my husband for his driver’s license. He asks my husband what was our current address. He then asked us if we were lost or new to the area and my husband told him no we had lived in Tyler 35 years.

He then asked who was in the car with him and my husband said she is my wife. The officer did not give any reason for stopping us, such as “you were speeding or your tail light is out.” He took John’s license back to his police car and I guess he was checking on John by computer.

All officers were laughing and talking to each other. John felt as if they were making some sort of remarks about us and having a good laugh at who they had stopped requiring to have a backup.

In about 10 minutes, the officer gave John his driver’s license. We again told him we were just out taking a drive. He then told us he had stopped us because there had been a lot of suspicious activity in the area. I was not aware it was lawful to stop an older couple for looking suspicious and had not broken the law.

I didn’t think we looked that bad. I guess being 62 and 60 years old and driving and older model car, you really are a threat to some people including the Whitehouse Police Department. We even have disabled license plates on our car, as my husband is disabled. Shame. Shame.

However, we did invite him to our church and gave him a gospel tract to read as he looks for other suspicious old people.