Getting pulled over is never a pleasant experience, and last week, Gisele Bundchen found herself in a particularly tough situation near her home in Surfside, Florida.
In police bodycam footage, the supermodel can be seen breaking down in tears last Wednesday, despite the traffic cop informing her that she wouldn't receive a ticket for alleged erratic driving.
Behind the wheel of a gray Mercedes G Wagon, Bundchen expressed gratitude to the officer for his "courtesy" before revealing that she felt pursued by a paparazzo.
"I'm just trying to stay away from that guy... [he's] like stalking me," she explained.
While the cop acknowledged her situation and celebrity status, he explained that he couldn't prevent photographers from doing their job and suggested she file a police report.
Clearly distressed, Bundchen tearfully noted, "There's more [of them]."
"I'm sorry," the officer responded sympathetically, "There's nothing I can do about that."
Now, a local politician is criticizing the officer's handling of the roadside interaction.
Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett expressed his disappointment in a letter to the town's interim police chief Henry Doce, stating that he was "dismayed" by the treatment of the 43-year-old model.
"The dismissive posture towards a resident who is clearly in distress is everything we do not want to see in the way our police interact and serve our residents," Burkett wrote.
Doce acknowledged that the situation could have been handled more delicately.
"I would have liked to have seen more empathy at the initial contact to what was going on," he admitted, while also praising the officer as a "phenomenal" employee.
Doce further stated that the officer spoke with the individual who was allegedly tailing Bundchen, reflecting on the incident as a learning opportunity to better understand such dynamics.
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