The officer arrested the eighty-two-year-old woman for not paying a seventy-seven-dollar trash bill, completely unaware of who she really was.
Getting arrested is something none of us ever hope to face, especially if we have been wrongly accused of a crime. While many people do place their faith in the American justice system, sometimes justice takes its sweet time being proved. But what happens when there is no justice? What happens when it is your word against theirs? How far are you willing to go to prove your innocence, and not only that, but are you sure there would be anyone willing to listen?
For Loretta Reed, proving her innocence meant the difference between leaving her sunset years at home or behind bars. The eighty-two-year-old retiree was not about to let herself be bullied into paying for a crime she did not commit. In the process of proving her innocence, this sweet grandmother of ten would shake up the entire justice system and take down the very people who tried to frame her for their benefit.
Loretta Reed is a seventy-seven-year-old woman from Arizona. Her quiet life has been both remarkable and unremarkable at the same time. She did everything she was supposed to: got good grades in school, graduated from a good university, married her college sweetheart, and settled down. But Loretta’s life has been a remarkable one too. She has filled the lives of those around her, especially her family, with love.
But one day, Loretta’s quiet life would take a dramatic turn for the worst. She would find herself in the battle for her freedom, but would her life ever go back to normal, or would it be forever ruined?
Loretta worked for over forty years as a school teacher. For the last twenty years of her career, she worked as a principal and oversaw the education of thousands of students all across America. She loved teaching, and students loved her. She had become a staple in the teaching community and was revered by her peers. Children would rejoice when they heard Mrs. Reed would be their homeroom teacher. But all the love in the world wouldn’t be able to help Loretta out of the sticky spot she soon found herself in.
Loretta’s teaching took her all across the country. Given the nature of her job, Loretta and her husband were able to take vacations as much as they wanted. The pair spent their summers exploring the USA and the Caribbean. Once their children were born, the parents would take their kids on cross-country trips in a big RV. Loretta’s family was her pride and joy, and they were all very close. This closeness would be the only thing capable of saving Loretta’s life, but would family be enough to guarantee Loretta’s freedom?
Loretta and Steve have five grown children. Starting their family young, Loretta always said her children helped her become a better teacher as each was so different from the last. As her children grew, Loretta and Steve couldn’t wait to see the adults they would become. Today, Loretta is a grandmother to ten and counting beautiful grandchildren. She can’t believe how lucky she is. When things hit the fan, it would be Loretta’s children and grandchildren that would save her from a life of imprisonment. Soon, their bond of love would be tested to the extreme.
Loretta and Steve enjoyed their jobs, but as they grew older, they couldn’t wait to retire. They had a very simple retirement plan: buy a small house in Arizona and live out their days gardening and watching their grandchildren grow. Loretta couldn’t wait to live in peace with her husband. Finally, the day did come when both Loretta and Steve retired. They had their dream house waiting for them, and they quickly settled into their new routines. But Loretta’s life was about to take a dramatic turn for the worst. Her dream of a quiet life would be turned upside down, and nothing would ever be the same again.
Loretta’s husband, Steve, was an officer in the US Special Forces. He worked in cybersecurity and was always looking for ways to ensure everyone’s safety. Sometimes Loretta thought he took things too far, installing tracking apps on everyone’s phone, but Steve knew the dangers that lurked around every corner. When they moved into their dream house, Steve insisted on outfitting it with security cameras all around. Senior citizens were always an easy target for robberies, and Steve wanted to be sure they would be safe. Loretta scoffed at the idea, but soon it would be her that would be paying the ultimate price.
Once Steve had installed the security system, he implored his wife to learn how to use the technology properly should something ever happen. Loretta refused, saying she didn’t want to feel watched in her own home. She had Steve to take care of this stuff, so why should she care? Besides, Loretta felt safe in her neighborhood. It was very small and tight-knit, and everyone knew everyone. She didn’t want to think someone in their neighborhood would want to do them any harm. Loretta would soon find out that danger was lurking outside her safe haven, and there would be no one to help her stop it.
Loretta’s world was turned upside down when her best friend and husband of fifty years suddenly passed away. Steve was working in the garden when he suffered a stroke. The doctors did all they could, but it was too late. Loretta’s world came crashing down. She had never felt so lost and alone. She relied heavily on her children to plan his funeral and make all the arrangements. Loretta had a hard time accepting Steve would never walk through the door again. Her rock and safety net was gone. She felt so exposed. But in her emotional freefall, Loretta’s life was about to get a whole lot worse.
It took about a year for Loretta to start feeling like herself again. She still missed her husband; she always would, but she also still had a lot to live for. For one thing, her grandchildren were growing up so fast, and Loretta didn’t want to miss out on that. She was the one now tending to the garden, something Steve loved very much. It was her way of feeling close to him. Nights were the worst, as Loretta missed laughing with her husband. She missed feeling so safe and secure with Steve. With no one to turn to, Loretta would have to rely on herself to feel safe.
Loretta’s home was in an upscale neighborhood. It was quiet and secluded, and all the neighbors knew one another. It was so fancy, in fact, that residents paid an extra fee for the garbage disposal to come more than once a week to pick up any unsightly trash. This was also one of the reasons Loretta scoffed at Steve for installing security cameras. Who on this block would go out of their way to hurt them? But even from the beyond, Steve was looking out for his wife. She would need all his strength to prepare for what came next. Upscale neighborhood or not, Loretta was in big trouble.
Loretta’s day of reckoning started out like any other. She tended to her garden and had coffee with her neighbor. Loretta loved her retirement life, but every day she thought of her husband. Since his passing, Loretta hadn’t given any thought to the security system Steve set up. She was adamant they still didn’t need it, but soon Loretta would find out just how wrong she was. She had always felt so safe with Steve around that no thought of harm ever crossed her mind. She went about her daily business until she noticed something strange outside her driveway. This would turn out to be her eventual undoing.
What Loretta noticed was that her trash wasn’t picked up from the night before. She looked around and saw that everyone else’s trash had been collected, but not hers. This was odd because she asked her son to do it for her last night, and yet there it was. She was sure there was a reasonable explanation. There was an explanation, but it wasn’t reasonable, and it was completely unexpected. Loretta assumed it would be collected soon and thought no more of it. But this should have been her first clue that something was very wrong, and it was only about to get worse.
Loretta had moved on to tending the garden at the front of the house. Her neighbors, who were also mostly retired, stopped to chat with her as they walked by. Loretta liked exchanging brief pleasantries with them, but then something really strange happened. The day kept getting stranger by the minute. On more than one occasion, each of the neighbors she spoke to asked her the same thing: whether she had noticed that the police were driving around the neighborhood. Loretta had nodded, but she agreed it was strange. Not only was it strange, but it would turn out to be downright violent in a matter of minutes.
Finished with gardening, Loretta went back inside to prepare herself a mid-morning snack. That is when she heard a loud pounding at her door.
“Police, open up!” she heard.
Struck by the force of the knocking, Loretta began to worry something was actually very wrong, and she couldn’t have been more right.
“Are you Loretta Reed?” asked one of the officers.
Loretta nodded her head yes.
“You’re coming with us, Mrs. Reed.”
Loretta was shocked. Instinctively, she pulled back. She wasn’t going anywhere without some explanation first, but the two young officers weren’t having any of it. Things were about to get real ugly for Loretta.
“Why am I under arrest, officers?” Loretta inquired. “Are you sure you have the right person? What could I have possibly done?”
“Are you Loretta Reed, the owner of this house?”
Loretta nodded yes.
“There’s a warrant out for your arrest, Mrs. Reed. I’m afraid you’ll have to come with us.”
“I will not until you tell me what exactly is going on!” cried Loretta.
She couldn’t believe it. What was going on? Surely there had to be some mistake. Why on Earth would a senior citizen like her be arrested? What is worse, the police were refusing to tell her why she was under arrest. How Loretta wished Steve was here.
Loretta retreated further into her house, which turned out to be a mistake on her part.
“Ma’am, I’m asking you nicely to please let us accompany you to the police station for questioning.”
But Loretta was having none of it. She was not going to allow herself to be arrested, especially since she didn’t do anything.
“Young man, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me exactly what I’m being arrested for. This is ridiculous.”
The officer pulled out a warrant and showed it to Loretta, but without her glasses, she couldn’t see a thing. She refused to go with the officers, and that is when things turned violent. Loretta was frightened to death by what happened to her next.
“I need my glasses if I’m to read this, young man,” said Loretta.
She turned to go back to the living room to retrieve her glasses, but that turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life. As soon as she took a few steps away from the door, the officers pounced, literally. One of the officers grabbed Loretta by the hand and twisted it behind her back. He then grabbed her head and pushed it violently down. Loretta let out a loud cry. She started yelling for help, but the officer told her to be quiet. Loretta started crying hard. She hadn’t cried this hard since her husband died, but things were only about to get worse.
The other officer slapped a pair of handcuffs on her. He clammed them on so tight Loretta cried out in pain.
“Let me go! What’s going on? Help me!” Loretta kept repeating these words, hoping someone would come see her.
“Ma’am, I told you, stop resisting. We have a warrant for your arrest, and you have to come to the station.”
But all poor Loretta could do was cry and cry. She was confused and scared, and she wanted her Steve, but she was all alone, and she didn’t know if she had the strength to fight whatever was happening to her. Loretta was literally half-dragged and half-carried by the police from her house.
Her neighbors had heard her cries, and they were in front of her house, anxiously waiting to see what was happening. When they saw her being taken away in handcuffs, they all started yelling at the two officers.
“Let her go! What are you doing? Have you no shame?” were the cries Loretta heard from her neighbors.
“It’s okay, Loretta, we’ll figure it out! We’ll have you home in no time!”
All poor, distraught Loretta could do was yell out, “Call my son!”
Loretta found herself being pushed violently into the back seat of the police car. She was dragged out of the car and pushed into the police station. The officers who were there couldn’t help but stop and stare in shock at the sight of a senior citizen being paraded through the police station like some sort of notorious criminal. Even the other officers took pity on the poor woman, but there was nothing they could do until she was processed. Loretta Reed had her fingerprints, mugshot, and dignity taken.
After all this, she was taken into an interview room where she sat on the cold metal chair, waiting to be told why she had been so violently apprehended. Loretta, for her part, didn’t know if she was more frightened or furious at her mistreatment. Finally, someone—not either of the two officers that brought her there—entered the room. With him, he brought a cup of coffee for Loretta, Kleenex, water, and his apologies. But Loretta wasn’t having any of it. She wanted answers and wanted them now. Whoever this person was better have a good excuse for all this disgrace.
“Mrs. Reed, I’m here to tell you the warrant for your arrest was issued due to a backlog of unpaid trash collecting bills.”
Loretta thought she misheard and asked him to repeat, and when he did, she asked just how much she was owing.
“Seventy-seven dollars, Mrs. Reed.”
“All this for seventy-seven dollars? I want my phone call now.”
Loretta called her son, Chris. He was a lawyer, and he would know what to do. She was led to the phone in the middle of the hall and dialed his office number. Loretta didn’t want to worry her son, so she tried her best to hold it together, but as soon as she heard his voice, Loretta broke down. She couldn’t control her fear any longer, and all she could do was sob and sob. Chris couldn’t get any information out of his mother, but he saw she was calling from the police station. He was confused but told his mother he would be there immediately.
Chris came into the police station like a hurricane. He came in yelling, demanding to see his mother. He told them he was her son and lawyer, and all interrogation was to desist until he spoke to her. The officers led him to see Loretta, and as soon as he did, his heart broke. There was his mother, handcuffed, sitting behind bars. Now he was the one sobbing uncontrollably. He demanded she be released and taken out.
When Loretta told her son what had happened, his sorrow turned into fury. He led his mom to the car and then turned his attention back to the officers. The officers informed Chris about what was going on. Like Loretta, he found it difficult to hide his rage and confusion. He immediately took out his wallet and threw eighty dollars on the table.
“This is an outrage! For seventy-seven dollars, you traumatized my mother!”
“But the fine wasn’t seventy-seven dollars, it was a much higher price now, sir. Your mother now owes three hundred dollars to cover the fine. She needs to pay it now, or else she goes back to jail until she can afford it.”
Chris was beside himself in fury, but he wanted to get his mother home. He paid the fine and filled out the paperwork. This wouldn’t be the last the police heard of Loretta and Chris Reed.
The car ride home was silent. Chris assumed his mother was too shaken to speak, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. While it was true Loretta was quite shaken, that wasn’t the reason she was so quiet. Loretta was quiet because she was plotting her revenge. Being wrongly accused and arrested was one thing, but being so mistreated and manhandled was another, and Loretta wasn’t going to take that lying down. Her mind was spinning with something the officers had told her at the station, something they clearly hadn’t told Chris. She knew this is how she would take those officers down.
Back at home, Chris made his mother a cup of tea and settled her on the couch. He hugged her for a long time, and both shed a few more tears. Loretta had pain in her arm and neck from being so brutally handled by the police. It was then that Loretta told her son the whole truth. She told him the officers claimed that before arresting her, they had come by her house several times over the course of the previous weeks to issue the notice of unpaid bills. She told him her arrest was the police’s last resort to get her to pony up the fine.
Since her children took care of the trash bill, Loretta could understand that maybe there was a possibility it hadn’t been paid, but still, something wasn’t quite right. Loretta told Chris she didn’t believe the cops when they insisted they came around her place multiple times over the weeks, even though at the station they showed her the missed notices. Loretta was adamant they hadn’t.
Chris was at a crossroads. He wanted to and did believe his mother, but if the police had a paper trail of the notices, it would be hard to disprove in any court. Loretta begged her son to believe her, but even she knew that what she was saying sounded unbelievable. Then Loretta remembered something. This would blow her case wide open.
Since her husband’s passing, Loretta never gave a second thought to the security cameras he had installed in and around the house. In fact, she had completely forgotten about them. And then later that night, she suddenly remembered. She jumped up from the couch and began searching for the tapes. Loretta never paid attention to Steve when he explained how to access the security footage, and now she was living to regret it.
Alone at home, she tried her best to push all the buttons she knew to find the correct channel with all the footage. She was desperate to prove the police had been lying. Loretta frantically flipped through channel after channel. Once she found the right one, there were a whole bunch of security passwords and steps that needed to be completed before she could access any footage. At that moment, she cursed her dead husband for all his security measures. She tried using all their birthdays as the access codes, their anniversary, their retirement date, but nothing was working. To Loretta, it was obvious that Steve made her feel so comfortable and secure she thought she would never need to know this stuff, but with Steve gone, Loretta was left to fend for herself.
Loretta was exhausted from the day’s events and decided she needed her rest. She called all her children to check in with them and then turned in for the night. Loretta didn’t get any sleep that night. She was racking her brain for a way to access that darn footage.
The next day, Loretta decided she had enough of her own stubbornness and called in the big guns. She called her oldest grandson, who had also recently started working in cybersecurity. If anyone was going to help Loretta, it would be him. Her grandson showed up within the hour, ready for action.
Simon showed up with a huge black bag. In it, he had what he described as a supercomputer, the same ones they use in the movies to crack impossible codes and save the world. Loretta was impressed; Simon wasn’t playing around. She made her grandson a cup of coffee, and the two got to work.
Loretta could only watch with anticipation as Simon clacked furiously on the keyboard. Within thirty minutes, Simon had access to all the footage from since Steve installed the system, and there Simon found the footage that would change Loretta’s life forever. The videos proved that the police were lying the whole time. The police hadn’t been around Loretta’s house on the days they claimed they were there. This meant that the notices the police showed Loretta at the station had been forged. Loretta was ready to put her revenge plot into action.
With Simon’s help, the two created a series of posts on Facebook detailing the event of Loretta’s arrest. Within twenty-four hours, the post had been shared thousands of times, and what they uncovered next would rock not just the community but the entire city. Hundreds of people, mostly senior citizens, responded to Loretta’s post claiming they had found themselves in similar positions, being arrested for outstanding garbage bills and then paying triple the amount to stay out of jail. Loretta felt their pain deeply. She was even more determined to make things right.
There was a rumor going around that this was some kind of scheme to get rich by preying on the elderly. No one had enough evidence to prove it until now. Loretta’s security footage proved that, at least on the police level, there was evidence of some kind of corruption. Loretta’s post garnered so much attention that the local news picked up on her story and ran with it. When asked if she would like to do an interview, Loretta declined. Truth be told, she was still scared of the police and what they might do to her or her family if she showed her face.
But her son Chris was having none of it. The young man went on the evening news to further explain his mother’s ordeal and to shed some light on the rumors of the trash scheme, as it was being called. The response to his interviews was overwhelming, and not in a good way for the city officials. When Loretta’s story and Chris’s interview were broadcast that night, her post went even more viral, and the news station and police station were being inundated with calls coming in from senior citizens and their families claiming the exact same thing had happened to them.
The pressure from the public got so immense that a judge ordered a formal police investigation be opened. What the police found would shake the very foundations of the city and have the people of America up in arms, and it was all thanks to Loretta. Police worked hard to figure out who was the mastermind behind such a degrading and vicious scheme. Clearly, it had to be someone of great authority to order such an operation and get away with it for so long. What the police uncovered would soon stun the whole nation into silence.
Police uncovered that it was none other than the mayor of the city that was running the scheme. Police didn’t make their discovery public knowledge until they had all the evidence they needed to take down the top city official. Once people found out, though, they were in the streets crying for blood. It didn’t take long for the police to uncover the whole sordid truth.
The truth was that someone had been running a garbage collection scheme all over the city. The scheme was very simple and brutal in its execution. It was designed to prey on the most vulnerable in society. There was someone on the city council who was outsourcing the garbage collection to a private company. They would issue warrants for arrests, mostly to the elderly, claiming they hadn’t paid their bills. It would be a small amount of money, but if they wanted to avoid a trial or jail time, they would have to pay up to four times the amount. Apparently, this had been happening for years.
In an unprecedented move, the presiding judge ordered the mayor to be put on trial for his crimes. Not only that, but the trial was going to be televised so the entire nation could watch. The trial would serve as a reminder to all those in power who thought themselves above the law. The mayor had nowhere to turn and confessed to everything to lessen his sentence. He ratted out the company he was in cahoots with, and both parties were given hefty sentences. Although the mayor wouldn’t face any jail time after the trial, he moved out of the state and lived the rest of his life in shame and seclusion.
Since the incident, Loretta has returned to living her quiet life. Her children and grandchildren were extra attentive to her in the following months. Her granddaughter even lived with her for a while until she felt safe and comfortable enough to be on her own again. Loretta had never felt so loved. Although she appreciated all the love and care, Loretta knew the real reason why she felt safe: even from high above, her Steve was always watching out for her. Loretta knew that no matter what her future brought, she would never truly be alone.
Once the dust had settled, people’s attention turned back to this sweet little old lady who blew the top off this national scandal. Loretta was grateful she was able to help, and even more so because the judge had ordered all the people affected to be fully reimbursed for their financial losses. Whether she wanted it or not, Loretta became a local hero. She had stood up to the authorities and won, and now, thanks to her, the people of her city would no longer be living in fear of being brutally arrested and charged with crimes they didn’t commit.
