July 10 (UPI) — An Oklahoma man placed under arrest decided to pop the big question before going to jail.
Brandon Thompson was at home is Muskogee, Okla., on July 4, celebrating his birthday and Independence Day when police came to arrest him on six outstanding warrants.
Placed in handcuffs, Thompson asked his mother if he could ask for his girlfriend’s hand in marriage.
“Momma, can I do it now?” he said. “Can I propose to her?”
Yes!” his mother said. She then asked the police officers if she could get her son’s wedding ring. The officers agreed.
“He’s gonna propose to her,” one officer told Officer Lincoln Anderson.
“Are you kidding me?” Anderson responded.
With Thompson’s hands behind his back, moments away from going to jail, he got on one knee and asked Leandria Keith to spend the rest of her life with him.
“I love you. Will you marry me?” he said. “Will you be my wife, please?”
“Oh, my gosh, is he serious?” Keith later told News on 6. “But I knew I was gonna say yes. Like I love him a lot. We go through our ups and downs. I guess it’s like an unconditional love, you know?”
Because he was handcuffed with his hands behind his back, Thompson was unable to give Keith the ring. But one of the officers removed the handcuffs and placed them back on with Thompson’s hands in front so he could propose in a slightly more traditional manner.
The couple embraced and Thompson was taken away. He was released on bail the next day.
“I know that he loves me and I love him and we can get through anything together,” Keith said. “There’s all kinds of situations out here, everybody makes choices everyday. I love him. I’m ready to spend the rest of my life with him.”
Turns out, Thompson isn’t the first Oklahoma man to propose while under arrest.
In 2013, Elk City, Okla., man Justin Harrel was placed under arrest for outstanding warrants when he asked the officer for “five minutes” and explained that he was just about to propose to his girlfriend Elaina Rios. The officer agreed to let him propose and took the ring out of Harrel’s pocket. But he kept the handcuffs on.
“It’s hard to propose being handcuffed,” said Elk City Police Chief Eddie Holland. “I could have said that comes after the marriage.”
