When it comes to dramatic arrests, this one is for the books.
Police bodycam footage reemerged of a bratty Palm Beach woman who refused to comply with officers after she was caught driving under the influence, going the wrong way down a blocked-off street. Sara Swanson berated multiple cops for hours, telling one he had “tiny fingers”— and screamed obscenities. She even stomped on an officer’s foot.
Swanson, 34, pulled the four-wheeled tantrum in front of a Restoration Hardware store on November 19, 2023, and was eventually booked into the Palm Beach County Detention Center. The 15-minute-long video brings non-stop surprises and displays of entitlement.
Apparently, Swanson made a wrong turn due to street closures caused by a pro-Palestinian rally. But things quickly went sideways when she repeatedly refused officers’ orders to back up.
She was on the wrong side of the yellow line dividing the roadway when officers stopped her — before being told to exit her car. At one point, she told cops, “Arrest me for what?! I need to go home, my dog needs food.”
After being forcibly removed and handcuffed — all while screaming “I don’t give a f–k” in a cop’s face — patient officers still gave her the option to relocate out of public view for the field sobriety test.
“Yes, come to my house. I’m not gonna sit here and be humiliated in front of you. We’re gonna go that way (motioning with her head to her home), or I’m not doing any of this,” she screamed. “Get me the f–k out of the street.”
Apparently unaware she was on camera, Swanson falsely accused an officer of sexual harassment and wriggled out of her handcuffs, prompting officers to yell “tighter, tighter” as they switched her to flexcuffs.
Her antics continued at the detention center, where she brought up the rally that started it all.
“There was no other way. There was a protest, and then I made the bad decision of being like… I’m from Israel… I’m Moroccan. I stand with them, so I made the wrong decision of pulling over,” she said. “So that was a f–ked up decision, but also it was f–ked up on your part to ever f–king touch me, sir.” She also warned about payback because an officer wouldn’t apologize to her: “And then he didn’t even want to say he’s sorry, so I’m going to take his license from him.”
Later, when being hauled off to county jail, she protested, “I don’t have underwear. I’m not going to jail without underwear.”
By the end, Swanson faced charges of DUI, battery on a police officer — bodycam video shows she apparently stomped on an officer’s foot — and resisting an officer without violence, the last of which she pleaded not guilty to. The department held her on a $1,001 bond, and she spent two nights in custody. She later received twelve months of probation and a six-month license suspension.
Even amid all the outbursts, Swanson managed to talk one officer into loosening her cuffs by yelping “Owwww.”
“You want them looser?” he asked. “I can’t make them any looser; I can fit my whole finger in here.”
“Well, you have tiny fingers,” she said. “I don’t know what to tell you.”
