HOT PURSUIT
During my 20 years of police work, arresting drunk drivers became a passion of mine. I led our department several years in the number of DWI arrests and had been recognized by MADD numerous times. What I don't know is how many lives were saved from those arrests.
It seems nabbing impaired drivers hasn’t left me yet, even after being retired from law enforcement for several years.
With the recent death of my father, I have been spending more time on the farm located in a somewhat remote area of McLeod County. A few weeks back while working on the newspaper late at night (yes, working remotely has its advantages) on the farm not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Everyone had nestled all snug in their beds.
I was just about to settle my brain for a rest from hours of putting the newspaper together when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter. I sprang from my office chair to see what was the matter. When what to my wondering eyes should appear but a stranger looking right at me in the window. I knew it couldn’t be St. Nicholas because it was still far too early.
The man wasn’t dressed in fur, but his clothes were a little ruffled and he had his shoes on the wrong feet. A little blood was splashed on one of his hands.
I quickly grabbed my brother and his wife who were fast asleep. We went to the front door where we found the man face down in the grass. While I talked with the man, who seemed dazed and quite confused, my brother had the phone in his hand communicating with 911 about our unwanted visitor from who knows where.
He mumbled something about walking for miles after crashing his vehicle. He had started out from Gaylord and was enroute to Hutchinson via the back roads of Penn Township located south of Brownton.
A short time later a police officer from Brownton and sheriff’s deputies from McLeod County, as well as First Responders and Allina Ambulance, were joining us on the farm for a late-night party. It’s the most excitement that farm has seen in years!
And by choice we kept my mother sheltered from the action as she obviously had enough to deal with in losing my father. She didn’t find out about anything until the next morning.
As medical personnel treated the man, the deputies determined he had crashed his Nissan Frontier six miles from the farm. It’s unknown how long he had been out wandering around, but I’m figuring at least two hours.
Deputies administered a Preliminary Breath Test of which he blew a weak sample of .179, more than twice the legal limit, according to court documents.
After determining he wasn’t seriously injured, deputies arrested the man and transported him to the hospital in Glencoe where a search warrant was executed for a blood test. In an interview with police, the man admitted driving his pick-up before rolling over. He left his vehicle on foot and tried to wave somebody down, but they kept driving past. He had no idea how long he had been walking. He said he “maybe had been drinking” prior to the crash.
The man eventually ended up spending the night at the McLeod County Jail in Glencoe. He has been charged with second-degree DWI as he has a prior conviction in 2017.
He may not have come with a bound down the chimney, but the drunk driver certainly landed with a bang in jail. A little too much cheer even before the holiday season kicked off.
It’s reassuring that this impaired man didn’t hurt himself or any other innocent person. Let this be a lesson to not go in hot pursuit of driving drunk this holiday season or any other time.