My Hero?

Driver takes to the streets - on golf cart

By Don Behm of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Jun. 22, 2009

Richfield — After drinking at least 10 beers at a golf course on state Highway 167 and being left behind by the relatives who brought him there, a South Milwaukee man decided to drive himself the nearly 40 miles back to his home - in a golf cart.

He did not even take the time to throw the empty beer cans out of the cart before hitting the road in the commandeered cart, according to a Washington County Sheriff's Department incident report released Monday.

The man, 47, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of second-offense operating a vehicle while intoxicated after a sheriff's deputy stopped the golf cart the suspect was driving southbound on state Highway 175, the report says.

The man told Deputy Andrew Meier that he was driving back to South Milwaukee after a group of "uncles" abandoned him at Kettle Hills Golf Course on Highway 167.

Meier was responding to a disorderly conduct complaint received at 5:53 p.m. about an intoxicated man on the course when he observed a man driving a cart on Highway 167, the report says. The cart turned southbound onto Highway 175, less than a mile east of the course, without stopping at the stop sign.

After Meier turned on the squad car's emergency lights and air horn, the suspect turned to wave and then pulled the cart onto the shoulder of the highway, according to the report. But the man continued driving the cart.

The deputy then used a siren, and the driver eventually stopped the cart about three-tenths of a mile south of the intersection, the report says, or about a mile from the golf course.

Eight open beer cans were found in the cart. Meier reported that the man's speech was slurred and that his eyes were glassy and bloodshot.

The man admitted that he had consumed around 10 beers while at the golf course, but that he did not believe he was intoxicated.

The suspect later told Meier that he did not know where he was at the time of the traffic stop and that "he did not even realize he was driving the golf cart on the road until he saw the squad with lights behind him," the report says.

Kettle Hills employees subsequently retrieved the cart.

After the man failed field sobriety tests, a breath test indicated the man had a blood-alcohol level of 0.138. In Wisconsin, a level of 0.08 is evidence that an adult driver is intoxicated.

The man was arrested and taken to the Slinger Police Department, where he agreed to submit to a chemical test of his breath with an Intoximeter. That test indicated a blood-alcohol level of 0.14, the report says.

He was released into his wife's custody.

In addition to the offense of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, the man was ticketed on allegations of open intoxicants in a motor vehicle and failure to stop at a stop sign.