OSHKOSH (NBC26) — As it turns out, you can get in trouble for spreading a little too much holiday cheer.
Tyler Kamholz, a college student at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, saw a YouTube video about five years ago of someone covering their car in Christmas string lights.
“This year I just was like, 'You know, what let’s just do it, I’ll put it on this year we’ll see what happens,'” Kamholz.
Unfortunately, he got pulled over by a state police officer because it’s not legal to drive on roads like that. The trooper was very nice about it, he said.
“‘I love your lights, but I’m pulling you over because of the lights,'" said Kamholz, quoting the trooper. '"They’re just a distraction.”
Larry Kamholz, Tyler's dad and a retired police officer himself, was not thrilled about it.
“When tyler came to me and said he wanted to put Christmas lights on his car, obviously I cringed," he said. "We had a long discussion about the laws that he would be violating if he did that on the streets. Most teenagers when they have something in their head that they want to do... Well, he went ahead and did it.”
A Facebook post about Tyler’s car from Wisconsin State Patrol got more than a thousand likes and hundreds of comments and shares soon after the student was pulled over.
“Turns out it was a lot bigger than what I thought it was going to be," said Tyler Kamholz.
Though wary at first, Larry Kamholz is proud of his son for making people smile, he said.
“It’s incredible that this simple thing of just putting the lights on the car, it’s made an impact on peoples lives," said Larry Kamholz. "We talk about 2020 being a horrible year for so many reasons that him doing this has changed some people’s lives, I mean just the happiness it’s brought.”
Even though you won’t be seeing Tyler’s lit up car driving down the highway, if you’re lucky, maybe you’ll catch it in a parking lot or neighborhood somewhere around the city.
