First Time in Handcuffs!

Last Wednesday John and I left for Washington D.C. with Bryce and Annalise.  We were heading off to visit with Dr. Vanderver and others who work with her to get a second opinion on whether or not she believes Bryce and Annalise do indeed have Aicardi-Goutieres syndrome, and if so, what things we need to do/watch for as they grow.  The flight into Baltimore was pretty uneventful.  Although the children did not sleep a wink on the entire 5 hour flight, they did a great job on the plane.  The excitement came just a few minutes after leaving the airport.

We had called ahead and rented a van which had room and tie downs for the two wheelchairs.  It was very helpful that the van was brought to us right at the curb near the baggage claim.  Annalise fell asleep in her chair just seconds after we left the airport.  As we headed out of Baltimore on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, we soon noticed a police car off to the left of the road.  We saw it pull out and into the left lane.  Soon it moved over into the right lane just a bit behind us.  John was going the speed limit, so he wasn't worried about it, but the police officer continued to follow us.

Then in a bit of a blur, the adventure began!  The lights and sirens went on and we pulled over to the side of  the road.   At the same time, two other police cars pulled up behind us and one came driving in from the front of us (yes, going against the traffic) and blocked us in.  We found out later that they had stopped traffic behind us and that these officers we were dealing with were members of the United States Park Police.  I looked in my side view mirror and saw a police officer, with his gun drawn coming toward my door.  One was also coming toward John on his side.  They began yelling for us to show our hands...which we did!  They then got to our doors, had us get out of the car and turn around.  They then handcuffed us while asking if we had any weapons on us or in the car, and led us to the back of the van where they told us to lean on the front of the police car.

They asked us what we were doing with that van.  With my heart beating out of my chest, I explained that we had just come in from Arizona to take our handicap children to the hospital there and that we had rented the van from a company called Wheelchair Getaways.  They opened the back door of the van and I'm sure that once they saw Bryce and Annalise sitting there in their wheelchairs, they knew there had been a mistake.  They explained to us that the van had been reported stolen and assured us that they would get everything taken care of shortly.

It ended up that the van we had rented, had been reported stolen back in January.  The company had recovered it on their own and had somehow not let the police know that it was no longer a stolen vehicle.  We were only handuffed for about 5 minutes, but the whole incident was a bit nerve racking.  At one point while we were still in handcuffs, the officer that was in with Bryce and Annalise came back and asked if there was anything like a stuffed animal or something that we use to calm him down.  I thought that maybe he was really upset.  Being separated from them, even for minutes, was the hardest part for me!  I knew we hadn't done anything wrong, but the thought of being away from our little ones for even a short time was terrible.

Anyway, as I was kind of stumbling telling them that we didn't really have anything since he isn't able to hold anything, John kind of shrugged his shoulders and said, "his mom.  She calms him down."  By that time they pretty much knew there was a mistake somewhere, so they let me go up to him although they told me to just poke my head in and not let him see the handcuffs.  So I did and after that the officer who had put the cuffs on me, took them off and he and all of the officers apologized for the misunderstanding.  Bryce and Annalise were both fine.  Annalise was playing with a badge that one of the officers had given her and Bryce seemed to be enjoying the lights from the police cars.  It was good to be able to touch them again!

They continued to apologize as we sat and talked with them while they tried to get the car "out of the system" so that we could continue to use it.  They did say that it would take about a half an hour for it to get completely cleared and that we were free to go, but that we may be pulled over again for the same thing.  Sergeant Giannini gave us his card and told us that if we were stopped again, to show it to the police officer and explain what had happened.

Well, we left and sure enough about 10 minutes up the road a police car pulled behind us and soon the lights went on.  Luckily this time it was just one officer and he took the card, made a phone call and soon let us on our way.

As we drove away, John said to me," I've never been in handcuffs before!"  Me either!  I guess there is a first time for everything...and hopefully a last for this type of adventure.  It's one I would rather not repeat!