Police in Houston, Texas handcuffed, detained and searched the vehicle of an innocent man for over an hour this week, all because he gave change to a homeless person. According to Houston’s Channel 2 News, police wrongfully accused Greg Snider of giving drugs to the man who approached him and asked for change.

Snider said that he was pulling out of a parking deck and talking on his cell phone when a homeless man asked if he could spare any change. Snider rolled down his window, gave the man 75 cents and drove away.

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Minutes later, a Houston police cruiser appeared in his rear-view mirror, blue lights blazing. He pulled over and was astonished to find himself face-to-face with a violently agitated officer.

“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,” Snider recounted. “They’re like, ‘We saw you downtown. We saw what you did.’ And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? I gave a homeless man 75 cents.'”

Officers dragged Snider from his car and cuffed him on the side of the road. At least 10 other police cruisers arrived at the scene and the officers spent an hour with drug-sniffing dogs, ripping apart the interior of Snider’s car and looking for drugs that weren’t there.

Finally, the police were forced to admit their mistake and let Snider go. He is considering legal action and was particularly put off that the cops seemed to find the whole thing funny.

“He said everything was a misunderstanding and that I was free to go,” Snider said. “They were laughing and everything.”

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