MORRISTOWN, Tenn. (WATE) — A couple was pulled over by Morristown police due to a license plate mixup.

JC and Carolyn Herron were driving to a doctor’s appointment Monday morning when they were pulled over. They had their 3-year-old granddaughter, Penelope, with them. At first, they didn’t know why they were being pulled over. Carolyn captured part of the interaction on video.

“They were screaming, ‘get out of the car, turn around, walk backwards’, and both police officers had guns drawn on me as I was doing that,” JC said. “Carolyn got out of the car shortly thereafter, and they started screaming at her to turn around because she was recording it with her phone.”

Carolyn’s license plate on her Ford Expedition spelled “Lovey,” the name her grandchildren call her. In Claiborne County, a Ford F-150 was reported stolen. Its license plate also spelled “Lovey,” but with a zero instead of an “O.”

Carolyn had talked to law enforcement about this issue twice before this traffic stop. She was first stopped by police in Bean Station, who asked for her registration, and then let her go after reading it. Then, law enforcement officers came to her home to ask about the stolen vehicle. After that happened, they said they were told the issue was resolved.

Nothing else happened until the traffic stop on Monday.

“I really thought the guy on my left, doing all the screaming and had the gun on me, I really thought if I get shot today, that’s the one who’s going to do it,” JC said.

“Yes, and I had a laser beam on my chest at one point,” Carolyn added. “Then I started saying, ‘I have a baby in the car, I have a baby in the car!’ and the officer came over and told me to walk backwards with my hands up and he asked me if I had any guns on me.”
“I could hear Penelope hollering, ‘lovey, lovey, lovey.’ So I was crying,” she said.

Officers then discovered the discrepancy between the plates and let them go.

“You’d think they just captured Al Capone, that’s the way it was,” JC said.

WJHL’s sister station 6 News reached out to the Morristown Police Department about this incident.

“Our records show that the officer ran the tag as it was displayed on the vehicle with an ‘O’. Officers learned during the stop that the reported stolen vehicle tag contained a ‘0’. However, using either character, the license plate shows as a stolen vehicle in the crime information database. It is common for officers to use high-risk protocol during felony investigations. Our records personnel will report the discrepancy to the state information system,” a spokesperson for the department said.

Carolyn said the worst part about the situation is how it’s affected Penelope.

“She has regressed to sleeping with her parents and tells her mommy all the time, ‘baby in the car, baby in the car,’ Carolyn said. “Yesterday, she didn’t want to get in my vehicle; that hurts my heart.”

Carolyn has since gotten a new license plate, but hopes a similar situation won’t happen to someone else.

“To be treated that way at gunpoint, handcuffed, humiliated, I’m supposed to protect my family, and my wife and grandchild are down there crying and screaming. It’s ridiculous,” JC said. “I hope something comes out of this, that the police chief will analyze his force and do something drastic about the way they handled this.”

The police department also told 6 News, “We believe that our organization’s protocols and policies are in line with professional law enforcement standards as they are subject to accreditation review.”