While most people fear the day a police officer pulls them over, one woman on TikTok welcomed it.
In a viral video with over 8.7 million views, user @222itrapunzelbitch sits in her car while the rear-view mirror shows an officer installing her license plate.
@222itsrapunzelbitch when he thought he was pulling over a stolen vehicle butended up w this🤭 #fyp #xyzbca #justgirythings ♬ Just A Girl – No Doubt
“Tried screwing m license plate on 2 months ago & couldn’t get it so I decided it could just sit in my front seat w me until I got pulled over,” she writes in the text overlay. “Today was the day, I rolled my window down & handed him the screws & my mini screwdriver.”
(The Daily Dot reached out to @222itrapunzelbitch via TikTok comment.)
In the caption, the TikTok user joked about the surprise the officer likely felt from the request. “When he thought he was pulling over a stolen vehicle but ended up w this,” she wrote with a laughing emoji and the hashtag #justgirlythings.
In the comments section, some people loved seeing the officer being put to work. “The fact you stayed in the car while he did it,” user Lexi said with laughing emojis. “10/10,” another applauded.
“This is amazing ahahah,” a third user wrote.
For others, the scenario sounded like the beginning of a love story.
“Can someone make this into a romance book please,” one user wrote about the unusual incident. Another asked whether the TikToker got the officer’s number after.
But not everyone was pleased with the TikTok user playing a damsel in distress. Many wrote that she was given special treatment due to her “white privilege.”
“The privilege in this video is astounding,” one wrote. Another said, “Girl you’d be [skull emoji] if you were black.”
The unfair treatment of Black people with regard to traffic stops is well-documented.
A 2020 study by NYU and the Stanford Open Policing Project looked at the dataset of almost 100 million traffic stops across the United States. They found that Black drivers were around 20% more likely than white drivers to be stopped by police.
They are also 1.5 to 2 times more likely to be searched than white drivers.
“Tell me you’re white without telling me you’re white,” another TikTok user commented.
Still, some women swapped stories about their own experiences of using their ignorance to their advantage. “I got pull over for my license plate light being out. who knew there was a light back there, not me apparently,” this woman shared.
“Literally me when I got pulled over for having an expired inspection sticker and I said ‘OMG where would I get a new one at?’” another said.
“Me with my lil renewal sticker ‘OMG it’s still on the paper? Could you slap that on for me? Thanks so much!’” a user recalled.
Like the TikToker, some women were lucky enough to have police officers help them with car-related issues. “One time I got pulled over for not having my lights on. I told him I didn’t know how to turn them on since it was a new car & he showed me/let me go,” one woman wrote.
Another shared: “I didn’t get a speeding ticket once bc when he asked for my registration I didn’t know what it looked like and he just laughed and told me to leave.”
A third commented, “I had an officer change my brake light once bc I didn’t have the tool to get in there… I cried when he came up to my window and said ‘I have a bulb.’”
If you’ve ever wondered how many police officers it takes to change a lightbulb, this woman’s story might shed some light.
“Got pulled over for my headlight being out had 2 more cop cars pull up and they all fixed my headlight,” they wrote.
