‘The Bachelor’ Contestant Tracy Shapoff Shows up in Police Car After Twitter Scandal

Tracy Shapoff may have found herself in trouble with the Twitter police last month, but The Bachelor contestant was ready to put Colton Underwood in handcuffs during Monday’s season premiere.

In Monday’s 3-hour premiere of Colton’s season of the ABC dating show, the wardrobe designer made her grand entrance to Bachelor Mansion driving a police cruiser, drawing the attention of all the other women in the house as well as the 26-year-old philanthropist.

Tracy joked that she was the “fashion police” before whipping out a pair of handcuffs for him to “hold onto.”

“I’m saving these for the Fantasy Suite,” he joked after she left.

Tracy found herself in the headlines before she even got in the driver’s seat of a police car, when a number of her past tweets resurfaced last month featuring racist comments, fat-shaming and the use of the R-word.

In a conference call with reporters this month, Colton condemned her tweets, saying, “I don’t believe in whatever Tracy liked and tweeted at the time,” as reported by Entertainment Tonight. “[But] I think that’s a growing thing.”

“As the Bachelor, it’s a good opportunity for me to get to really know these women and form my own opinions of them without really seeing that. That is a gift and a curse at times,” he explained.

Tracy herself also apologized at the time the tweets resurfaced, writing in a lengthy Instagram note, “I want to start by expressing my sincerest apologizes for the extremely hurtful words that I said many years ago. I’m so sorry for those who I have offended. I am beyond mortified that I ever had those thoughts and then proceeded to express them. By no means does this reflect the person who I am today. To the people who do not know me, I am a loving, kind, thoughtful, generous, and compassionate woman. I am not mean-hearted or hurtful.”

“The people I have always surrounded myself with are very diverse and come from all over the world,” she continued. “I have a huge heart and a very open mind. In the many years since writing those tweets, I have made a conscious effort not to be judgmental and to be accepting of all people. I have gone into a field of work where I am able to help women and men have positive images of themselves, their bodies, and feel beautiful in who they are. It is the most rewarding feeling being able to work in such a diverse field. It shows me the beauty in all people and I am so lucky to have this opportunity.”

To conclude, she said she could not “defend” her old tweets and hopes to “learn from my mistakes.”

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC/Rick Rowell