What some observers initially thought was a Washington State Patrol trooper attempting to pull over an elderly woman riding a scooter on a highway last week was actually an act of kindness.
Video posted to social media websites showed Trooper Dave Hintz's cruiser following behind the woman's motorized scooter on State Route 546 on June 9, according to KOMO-TV.
The State Patrol received countless call asking why the trooper was tailing the woman at speeds reaching up to 6 mph.
"I wasn't trying to stop her. I wasn't trying to detain her. I was just trying to get her back to her home," Trooper Dave Hintz told the news station. "I just treated her the way I would've wanted somebody to treat my mom."
The woman in her 80s had gone out for coffee in Lynden Tuesday but got lost while trying to get home. When the trooper discovered her predicament, she was nearly four miles from her house and continuing to head in the wrong direction.
A newly released dashcam video shows the trooper interacting with the woman before he gives her an escort.
It took more than an hour for the trooper to guide the woman back home. Officials said that they could have called an ambulance, but that would have also required finding a way to get the scooter home.
"Our motto with the State Patrol is service with humility," Hintz said. "This particular case took a little more patience and humility but I wouldn't have done it any differently."
