Jamie Rodgers was mildly curious when he noticed a line of Orange County sheriff’s patrol cars driving near him on the 73 toll road in Laguna Niguel one morning in June 2021.
Rodgers’ curiosity grew when one of the cars began swerving side to side, setting up a traffic break.
“They must be looking for somebody,” thought Rodgers, who was on his way to his then job as an athletic trainer at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano.
Rodgers, the 39-year-old father of two small children, finally pulled over, still thinking that maybe the police were after some criminal hiding in the brush along the freeway. But looking through his rear-view mirror, he noticed the police cars had stopped and about a dozen officers were out, pointing their service weapons and rifles in his direction.
Then came the words through a police loudspeaker: “You are considered armed and dangerous. Do exactly as I say or you could be shot.”
Rodgers, who still didn’t know why he was the focus of such attention, prayed he would live to find out.
“I’m thinking I’m going to get shot. I’m a Black man being pulled over in Orange County. … I’ve heard too many stories of this happening,” Rodgers said in an interview. “I’m thinking, I’m going to be next.”
As it turned out, Rodgers was driving a loaner vehicle that Car Pros Kia Huntington Beach had mistakenly reported stolen. The report caught the attention of the Orange County Auto Theft Task Force, which traced the vehicle to Rodgers’ home in Costa Mesa and had it under surveillance all morning.
It took about 10 minutes along the freeway for police to figure out the mistake. But the memory still troubles Rodgers, who says he suffers from post-traumatic stress and is suing the dealership for negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
Rodgers said he was so discombobulated that it was hard to follow police orders with a dozen muzzles pointed at him.
“I’m putting my hands up, they’re telling me to move to my left, but I start moving to my right, out of fear,” he recounted. “(I said,) all right God, you’ve got to take over, I don’t know what I’m doing right now. I’m about to get shot.”
A deputy told him to pull his shirt up over his head so police could see his waistband. They made him walk backward to them. Slowly. They they took him to the ground, handcuffed him and put him in the back of a patrol car, without explaining why he was being detained.
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Officers finally sorted it out. Rodgers had been driving the loaner 2019 Kia Sportage for about two months while his own vehicle was undergoing extensive repairs at the dealership. Rodgers said the dealer had misplaced the loaner contract — apparently it had fallen behind a file cabinet. The dealer received a bill for unpaid tolls, couldn’t find the contract and assumed it must have been stolen, Rodgers said.
He said he lost his job as an athletic trainer because he could no longer concentrate and gets flashbacks when he sees police or drives on the 73 toll road. He now works in real estate.
“He’s had to reinvent himself,” said his attorney, Scott Harlan. “The problem with these things is an unintentional body movement can lead to death.”
Attorney Christian Scali, representing the Kia dealership, did not comment Friday.
