EAST PRAIRIE — Jenifer Hubbert went to town to get a soda, and she ended up with an engagement ring — and a run-in with the law.
Earlier this month Hubbert’s boyfriend, Ronnie Vinson of East Prairie, planned a marriage proposal that involved a traffic stop in the middle of town and Hubbert believing her boyfriend was being arrested.
“I just didn't want to take her out to dinner and do the normal proposal,” Vinson said. “I wanted to give her a scare. She's a thrill seeker and that's what I wanted to give her.”
So around 4:30 p.m. Sept. 9, the couple drove into East Prairie to get a soda — a suggestion made by Vinson. As they approached the corner of Washington and North Martin streets, a police car — which had been sitting in a church parking lot — whipped out with its lights flashing after Vinson’s vehicle.
“They pulled us over and said: ‘If you are who we think you are, we’re looking for you. We’ve got a warrant out for your arrest.’ When I asked why, they wouldn't answer me,” Hubbert said.
But then the officers told Vinson and Hubbert they had a warrant for Vinson’s arrest; the warrant was for his failing to appear in court over a traffic violation.
“I stepped out and he put me on my knees and said he was going to search the car, and he handcuffed me,” Vinson said.
The officer handcuffed Vinson in the front so he could propose while down on her knees. Then the officer came over to Hubbert’s side of the vehicle and asked her to step out of it.
“I was already crying, and Ronnie was on the ground so I went over to him and hugged him and told him it was going to be all right, that I’d get him out of jail, and then he said, ‘Will you marry me?’” Hubbert said.
Hubbert said she asked if he was kidding and slapped him.
“I had to ask her again and she said yes,” Vinson said.
At Vinson’s request, the couple’s friends were standing by at a nearby car wash. They captured the moment on film and came running over to congratulate them.
“A lot of people were driving by and thought we were in trouble,” Vinson said. Even Vinson started to be convinced.
“I was so nervous I actually thought I was going to jail,” Vinson said. Now the couple will marry Saturday.
Vinson said the proposal took a couple of weeks to plan. Vinson’s mother and stepfather actually made the first call to Capt. John Gifford of the East Prairie Police Department
“I told him: ‘We'll do it on a Sunday afternoon, and I'll have a place where I'm sitting and you can come by around 4:30 or 5 p.m. and when you come by me, I’ll turn my lights on and pull you over,’” said Gifford, who is friends with Vinson’s stepfather.
Vinson said everyone played it off really good.
“I was afraid they would start laughing or something before I could ask her,” Vinson said.
When family and friends learned how Vinson proposed, reactions were mixed, the couple said.
“Some people have said, ‘Oh, that's so redneck,’” Hubbert said. Gifford said he thought it was neat.
“I'm glad she said yes because if she didn’t, I’d feel bad — but they’re a good bunch of kids,” Gifford said.
Gifford said he also thought it would be a good public relations move for the police department.
“A lot of times people are down on us and think negative of us,” Gifford said. While Gifford has been asked to stop cars after a couple’s gotten married, he has never for marriage proposals.
“I've been in law enforcement for 25 years, and I’ve never been asked to do something like this,” Gifford said.
Vinson and Hubbert said they appreciate what the police department did for them, but Gifford said it was his pleasure.
“I knew the boy was a good kid and that it would work out in the long run,” Gifford said.
Family and friends are invited to attend the noon wedding at Wyatt Pentecostal Church. A reception will follow at 3 p.m. at the Big Book Club in East Prairie.
