Entitled woman attempts to oust retired detective from a public lake, leaves humbled

Editor's note: This article was originally published on August 23, 2023. It has since been updated.

Most people don't want to create trouble for others and prefer minding their own business, especially in a public setting. But there are moments when some individuals seem to want conflict for no apparent reason. A retired detective, u/Country_Fence, shared their story on Reddit of an incident involving a lady who attempted to force them out of using a public lake because they were supposedly breaking the law.

The individual starts the post by saying, "In my life, I've always made every attempt to stay on the right side of the law, as I considered hypocrisy one of the worst traits for an officer of the law to have."

They talk about how they got a nice ski boat which they would take out to the local public lake along with their family. The detective's kids were aged 12 and 13 at the time of the story and loved going to the lake, wanting to go as much as possible. "One day, we were at the lake, and after a few hours, my daughter mentioned she needed to use the bathroom. The lake also had a public swimming beach that had public restrooms, and we would often take bathroom breaks there. We would pull up to shore well away from the marked swimming area, and we'd disembark to use the facilities," the Reddit user shared.

Upon pulling up to the docking area, the detective noted a lady sitting on a lounge chair about 50 feet from them. The family remained 250 feet away from the swimming area, so they were not breaking any rules. As soon as the woman noticed the boat pulling in, she stared angrily at the family. Meanwhile, the kids identified the lady as the "mean lunch lady" they had at their previous elementary school.

As they pulled into the shore, the agitated woman began to yell at them, saying they were breaking the law. Not losing their cool, the detective calmly replied, "Really? What law?" Unfazed by the query, the woman continued to yell that they were driving a motorboat into the swimming area.

The individual pointed to the marked swimming area that was still 250 feet away and inquired, "You mean that swimming area?" to which she said yes. They then explained to her that they never entered the swimming area. Not prepared to let it go, the woman said the law did not allow boats to pull up to any shore. This did not make any sense because it meant that people would have to swim out of boats to get to the shore!

The woman then proceeded to call her son, a deputy, who she said would land the detective in trouble for where they docked the boat. When her son answered the call, she read out the boat's hull number to him. "Then she says (with a smirk on her face), 'My son is going to order you from the lake, RIGHT NOW...' and what happens next shocked me. This woman CALLS ME BY MY FULL NAME!!! Then she hands me the phone...," u/Country_Fence recounted.

"Now, I should say, this, what has just happened, is a clear, VERY clear, violation of the law. In my state, it's known as a LEIN violation, and police officers/deputies are very often charged with this crime...I read about it several times a year. If an officer uses his police computer to divulge personal information...say a deputy tells his mom the name of the registered owner of a boat that she is having a disagreement with, for example, it is a crime, no ifs ands or buts. Every cop knows this," they explained.

Being a detective, the Reddit user immediately recognized what probably happened. The woman handed them the phone and the son began to identify himself. The detective interrupted him to inquire if he knew what LIEN violations were. The deputy attempted to ignore the detective's questions, but they continued to press him. After a few more inquiries, the deputy became silent, at which point the detective said, "Tell you what. I'm going to hand this phone back to your mother. Then you're going to tell your mother to leave this beach right now. Then we can all forget this ever happened. Understood?" They returned the phone to the lady, who listened to her son for a while and then quietly left the place immediately after packing her belongings.

People on the platform loved the detective's calm approach to the situation in the comments section. u/tatpig said, "I bet she uses her son, the ‘deputy’, as a club anytime she doesn’t get her way." u/HahaImStillHere pointed out: "You should report him, sir, now the mother and the son will do this on me or others who don't know what LEIN violation is."