However, after he had searched the RV and was wrapping up the “interview,” I let Wiegand and the other officer smell the bottle. The other officer shook his head,no, that did not smell like marijuana, but Officer Wiegand said yes, that was what he had smelled…but if that was it, why in his search didn’t he find it in the bathroom medicine chest?
I made the point then and there to Officer Wiegand that years ago we used to joke that patchouli oil reminded us of the flamboyantly dressed and be-ringed Black men who took drugs–you could literally smell patchouli wafting down the street behind them–but that is not the smell of marijuana.

Now Officer Wiegand may have thought these comments of mine let him off the hook BUT patchouli oil is an ingredient in many cosmetics these days, such as the top selling Clairol Herbal essences and it seems any officer worth his salt ought to be able to discriminate between patchouli oil and marijuana. The other officer seemed to be able to discriminate…and when I let the IDOT officers who came to our home to investigate our complaint smell the same bottle, they SEEMED to shrug it off.

In any event, we are not sure it was the oil that set Officer Wiegand off, because he reported the smell of BURNING marijuana and the oil was not burning and neither one of us smokes.

So it is a mystery to us but maybe with your knowledge of law enforcement you can solve it.

Further, when I spoke of the situation needing “de -escalating,” I was referring to the fact that it was Officer Wiegand’s behavior that needed taking down a few notches. He had a real “in your face” attitude from the get go and he was definitely trying to push our buttons to put us over the edge. He would switch with a snap of the fingers from a fake geniality to downright menacing, and then back again. That kind of schizoid behavior is VERY unsettling and to me as I said, It was as if HE needed pacifying. Naturally we were not comfortable being pulled over at night for no reason, and the fact that he didn’t go through any of the normal procedures such as asking for driver’s lic, reg, etc, really made me scared that he might not be a real officer.

Other people who have been stopped by Officer Wiegand report similar experiences. A few examples are, he pulled over one man and asked him right off if he was a terrorist or a Hispanic. He pulled over another man and asked him if that was his wife or his girlfriend sitting beside him (wife not happy LOL), he told another fellow that he (Wiegand) has more power that anybody else in law enforcement and can do whatever he wants in the execution of a traffic stop, he gave a UPS driver a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt when indeed the driver was (UPS drivers get fired real fast if they don’t–the Lee County Court ripped the ticket up, BTW.)

Lastly, I have a concern that the spelling errors, erratic punctuation and often somewhat rambling thoughts in your comments on this post are very similar to the writings of Officer Wiegand himself… I have a suspicion you might be Officer Wiegand, but if so— so be it. Amen.

and P.S. Yes, a citizen must answer questions concerning firearms, which my husband did. But under Iowa state law a person with a concealed carry permit is not required to tell an officer that he is carrying. We checked online, we checked with our sheriff, we checked in our law books and we were correct in our reading of the law. Offiicer Wiegand was not.

We the Schneiders were extremely cooperative because the IDOT officer’s behavior was threatening and menacing and I was afraid we were going to be physically harmed by him. (Does our agreeing to allow him to search our RV sound like interference to you?)In fact, AT NO TIME did we talk back or argue with him except when my husband tried to explain the actual laws concerning firearms of which this officer was sadly ignorant. Even though we had a book of firearm laws inside the RV I was afraid to go get them for the officer because anything I did would prolong the traffic stop and make us vulnerable to further harassment and possible physical harm.

We are not stupid. If we had been engaged in any illegal activity or if we were prone in any way to engage in illegal activity do you think we would open ourselves up to public scrutiny the way we have? On the contrary, we would have gone into a corner and tried to get lost and forget the whole episode. If you knew me at all you would realize I am one who is not even comfortable returning a library book late.

But as the officer clearly was at fault here we have decided to shed some light on his behavior and the condoning of his behavior by IDOT. In fact, I blame IDOT more than I do Mr. Wiegand because IDOT is not addressing Mr. Wiegand’s conduct on the job and they have had at least 50 complaints I know of against him. Minus the fact I am confident this officer is NOT a Muslim terrorist, that would be ridiculous, keeping him on the force reminds me of what happened in the Fort Hood incident. The problem there and here is not not only with the officer but with commanders who have been given repeated warning signs about an officer and have chosen to ignore them.

You say Mr. Wiegand did nothing illegal. Sir, with all due respect it is illegal to pull over a driver in a traffic stop without due cause. If we had been in a commercial vehicle then the officer would have had the right to pull us over. But we were NOT in a commercial vehicle (and all our tags were up to date and we were not engaged in a moving violation. ) The Consititution of the U.S. guarantees the citizens’ rights to peaceful travel–I am surprised that as a police officer you don’t seem to be aware of this.

Further, Wiegand’s admission hat he pulled us over because he thought we were “carnies” shows that he used profiling, which is illegal. Now actually I am in favor of profiling, but if this is a land of laws, then I would think the laws of our land must be obeyed, especially by officers of the law.

As an aside, friends of mine in law enforcement have surmised that Wiegand was probably bluffing us the whole time…that he actually smelled nothing, not even my essential oils and soaps (remember this was an RV), WHICH I SHOWED HIM, but that because we had an unusual looking RV and trailer, he mistook us for drug runners and got all excited and overwrought thinking he was going to make the bust of the century.

Interference? Officer Wiegand’s report makes no mention of interference on our part and describes himself as being a polite boy scout and us as only questioning him re firearm statutes. I have been brought up to respect the law and officers of the law, which is another reason this whole encounter was so upsetting.

We had and have no intention of ruining Officer Wiegand’s career. But it is our right to tell the truth as we experienced it, just as it is the officer’s right to tell the truth as he experienced it. And sir, I ask you: since when it is UN-American to speak up?I think in fact it is quite the opposite –we are not living under a totalitarian government, not yet anyway, though Iowa seems to be making a good start in that direction.

In the case of David Howard, we have been hoping his allegations against Mr. Wiegand will go to trial so that the truth will come out. And if Officer Wiegand is innocent he should be happy to go to court and set the record straight and clear his name.

One last point I wish to make is that your attacks against me highlight the main reason many folks choose NOT to speak up. I have to add that many of the folks who support Officer Wiegand ( and sadly for him there have been few who support him) resort to this kind of tactic. Either that or they use profanity–such as employed by Mr. Wiegand’s son in a screaming phone call to a reporter– which thankfully you have spared us in your comment.

I am sorry that I disgust and appall you.Thank you for giving us your thoughts.

Please tell me how the Schneiders could have been charged with interference. Could it be because they were more knowledgeable of Iowa’s concealed carry laws than the officer was? Could it be when he claimed to smell marijuana they said they didn’t know where it was coming from?

And as you can read in the article above, Wiegand’s actions have brought a lawsuit against the State of Iowa that the State Attorney General is trying to wiggle the state out of because he knows that the state is going to lose.

I will end by saying that for the most part law enforcement does a wonderful job executing their duties. But every once in a while one bad apple will cast doubt on the entire force. And I believe that Wiegand is that bad apple in this case.