The wife of North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards was busted on video blocking in a driver and threatening to call police over a minor parking dispute.
Theresa Edwards identified herself as the owner of the C. Edwards Group in a July 15 clip that is quickly racking up views.
The company manages the McDonald’s franchises of her husband, Republican congressman Chuck Edwards. The driver said she briefly parked in a spot designated for the business when Theresa showed up, blocked her in with her SUV, and even stood in front of the car to keep her from leaving.
Apparently, road closures for a nearby farmers market had disrupted traffic and parking that day. The driver, who goes by Miss.maam on TikTok, said she parked for just a few minutes to pick up an order from a local business.
But Theresa didn’t let it go. She dialed the police as she practically leaned against the car’s front fender. She immediately backed off, however, when “miss.maam” pulled out her phone and warned, “You’re about to go viral, because you won’t move.”
The clip begins with “miss.maam” sounding distressed. “You understand you can’t block people in when I’m trying to leave. Can you move?” she told Theresa in the video. “You’re literally kidnapping me at this point. You are kidnapping me! Do you understand that?”
The kidnapping claim seems far-fetched. But North Carolina law does recognize a related crime: false imprisonment, which involves unlawfully and intentionally restraining or detaining someone against their will without consent. It’s unclear whether this situation would meet that bar.
Either way, Theresa did not seem too bothered. She told “miss.maam”: “Luckily, I’ve done this enough before to know I’m OK.” Ultimately, she walked back to her car and let “miss.maam” go, but the tense exchange lives on thanks to social media.
The parking-lot standoff isn’t the only controversy following Edwards these days. He’s currently under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations he “may have created or fostered a hostile work environment or engaged in sexual harassment.”
According to a May 4 report by Axios, he’s also facing scrutiny over interactions with young female staffers. Edwards has called the allegations “baseless.”
Before getting into public service, Edwards owned McDonald’s restaurants throughout Western North Carolina, which Theresa has operated since 2016.
On July 13, two days before the parking video surfaced, the couple announced in a press release that they were selling the franchise to devote more time to public service. Hopefully, that does not include parking enforcement.
