Thinking she was above the law, an off-duty Florida deputy confronted a tow truck driver with a gun and a badge as he was towing her car last week, which had been illegally blocking a sidewalk, threatening to arrest him for “illegally stealing my truck.”
The tow truck driver pulled out his phone to record the confrontation, leading to the deputy to be reassigned, whatever that means.
It is not the first time Orange County sheriff’s deputy Tracy Weiss has been disciplined for her off-duty abuse of authority, according to WFTV-9.
Channel 9 obtained Deputy Tracy Weiss’ disciplinary record, which revealed Weiss was suspended in 2008 for violating OCSO’s use of authority policy.
Weiss was suspended for 21 hours without pay after she was accused of acting inappropriately regarding a business arrangement, the Sheriff’s Office’s said.
The deputy, whom OCSO has employed for 11 years, was reassigned after the confrontation Tuesday night.
Despite the fact that fellow deputies responded to the scene, Weiss was unable to keep the tow truck driver from towing her truck.
She was forced to pay $125 to retrieve her truck.
Had she not confronted the driver, she would have only had to pay $62.50, but they doubled the fine because she held the driver up for more than 15 minutes.
The owner of the tow truck company said had she only been nice about it, informing the driver that she was a deputy, he would likely have returned her truck without any fine.
The incident took place last Tuesday after Weiss had parked her car partially into a driveway at the Starlight Ranch Retirement Community with the back end of her truck obstructing the sidewalk.
The retirement community has signs posted warning drivers of a strict tow away zone that is in effect 24 hours-a-day, seven days-a-week.
A member of the community’s homeowner association called the tow truck company because the sidewalk is used by senior citizens in wheelchairs.
When Weiss realized her truck was being towed, she hopped in another car and drove down the wrong-way of a narrow single-lane street to block the truck from driving.
She then hopped out the car and pulled out her gun.
When the tow truck driver saw the gun, he pulled out his phone to record, which was when she placed the gun back in her pocket and pulled out her badge instead.
“I am a cop,” she yelled. “You’re going to fucking jail for stealing my car.”
“I’m not going to jail,” the driver responded.
“Whatever,” she said before storming off and waiting for her fellow deputies to arrive.
UPDATE: Weiss was suspended for 40 hours almost a year later, but she used accumulated vacation time to serve that suspension, according to the Orlando Weekly.
