I’ve been meaning to write this one up for several days now. This past week about 30 minutes till midnight (my quitting time) I was turning out on to the bypass (southbound) when I realized that there were a pair of headlights heading toward me… northbound… in a southbound lane. As the car slowly passes I stopped and stuck my head out the window to stare at the car in utter shock. The driver stuck his head out and said, “I know, I know, I’ll fix it.” He then drove about another 20 feet and stopped again saying, “I know, I’m on the wrong side of the road. I’ll fix it.” I turned my car around and followed this guy up to the intersection I just turned out of.
As he turned onto a side road I hit the blue lights. As soon as I hit the lights the driver stopped right in the middle of the road. I asked him to pull up to clearing and pull off the road. He had to ask me twice where I was talking about. The spot I was referring to was about 15 yards in front of him. After he moved off his vehicle off the road, I approached him again. As I was asking for his license he cut me off and informed me that his license was suspended for drinking and driving. :shocked:
I asked the driver to get out of the vehicle. Once I had him out I patted him down and then started talking to him. I asked for his name, he lied about his last name. Of course the tags to his car were in his name so dispatch still found his driving record. I asked him how much he had drank. He told me 3 beers.
3 beers? Note to everyone, if 3 beers will get you so drunk you drive north in the southbound lane of a highway, DON’T DRINK! It’d be one thing if the guy was from out of town and had gotten confused about the traffic lanes or some such or something. But this fool grew up in this town.
Anyway, after getting to the station I started working on the arrest report. While typing in the info off dude’s car I realized that the registration printout I got from dispatch showed his tags to be expired. I radioed another officer and asked him to go to where the car was parked and check the plate because I was sure they showed valid. Sure enough, the other officer radioed back and confirmed that the stickers still showed valid. I asked the officer to remove the plate and bring it back to the station. Once I got the plate I had dispatch run the tab number off the year sticker. It comes back to a hearse owned by the guy’s employer.
Oh, and when I tried to conduct the field sobriety tests the guy refused to do them. I tried to conduct the B.A.C. and the guy refused. All in all, he ended up at the county jail with six charges (DWI, refusal to submit, driving while D/L suspend for DWI, expired tags, and driving the wrong way, theft of property).
As the jailer was booking him, he was acting like he was cool because he refused to bond out. I still say this town is over quota for idiots and other “special” people.
