HOUSTON – According to Greg Snider, all he did was give a homeless man 75 cents. Snider said he pulled over into a parking lot in downtown Houston on Wednesday to make a business call and “that’s when the homeless man came up to me. He said, ‘Hey my name is Dave. I’m from Dallas. I’m down on my luck. Do you have change?'” Snider said he gave the man some change and drove off.
But it was Snider’s luck that took a turn for the worse. “I had no idea at all what was about to happen.”
After pulling onto I-10, Snider said a police car with flashing lights and sirens pulled behind him. He waited for a safe place to pull over, and when he did, he said the officer began screaming and yelling at him. “He’s screaming. He’s yelling. He’s telling me to get out of the car. He’s telling me to put my hands on the hood.”
According to Snider, the officer then pulled him out of the car, handcuffed him and placed him the back of a patrol, as ten more police cars showed up. “They’re like. ‘We saw you downtown. We saw what you did,'” Snider said. “I was like, ‘are you kidding me? I gave a homeless man 75 cents.'”
But Snider said the officer accused him of giving the homeless man drugs and then asked to search the car. Snider agreed and drug sniffing dogs were brought in. He said he sat handcuffed for an hour until the officer told him the search turned up nothing. “He said everything was a misunderstanding and I was free to go,” said Snider. According to Snider, the officers were laughing about the incident.
Snider on the other hand, filed a complaint with the Internal Affairs Department to report the officers’ actions as well as damage to his car that occurred during the search.
Local news contacted Houston police and a spokesperson confirmed that Snider had filed a complaint but refused to comment further.
The homeless man was reportedly still down on his luck.
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