A Texas family says it endured a “hellish nightmare” at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo when a father, mother, and daughter, 15, were handcuffed when the girl was suspected of taking a pair of earrings from a vendor. The incident happened Tuesday and went viral after the family posted an account of it Facebook, says the Houston Chronicle. A sheriff’s deputy handcuffed Maricruz Cody, a kindergarten teacher, to a bench. Later handcuffed were John Cody, her husband, and Abigail, their daughter.
Eventually they were released, and the rodeo apologized and offered them a chance to come back free, but they declined and will file a formal complaint. Said Maricruz Cody of the deputy: “She judged us, tried us, found us guilty. She was adamant we had the earrings. … It was something very hard for me to watch, my daughter brought in in handcuffs, searched, treated like a criminal.”