Citizen's Arrest

     One night around 10:00 pm we were driving home from Grandma Bev's house down Pleasant Grove Center Street past a bar and a man pulled out in front of us. There was several feet of snow off the road and some packed on the road still. The man was driving in the wrong lanes, swerving, driving mostly around 5 mph then he would speed up and then slow back down. We figured he was drunk and slowed down behind him. We called 911 since he was headed toward a busy signal light and was likely to cause an accident.

     We approached the stop light and it turned red. Fortunately, he stopped. We pulled up next to him and he was wide eyed and jumpy. By this time Sheehan was on the phone with the police reporting the man and they were on their way to our location. The light turned green but the man didn't pull forward through the intersection. He stayed parked and so did we to keep the cops informed on the phone as to what he was doing and where he was going. He didn't move until the light turned red again. Then he suddenly decided to go right instead of straight through the light. We followed him and the other cars around us were all pointing at him aware that something wasn't right.

     We continued to trail him which was easy to do since he was only going 5 or so miles an hour. He still swerved around the road, causing all the traffic to creep along behind him. By this time the police came charging from behind us and flashed their lights. The man punched the gas and tried to flee as we approached another light signal. The man jerked the car to the right as he went through the intersection and went off the road straight over snow and train tracks running parallel to the road. The man was driving a Ford Taurus in 2 feet of snow and driving over train tracks he was all over the place. His suspension was having the workout of it's life as he did his "off-road" fleeing.

     He quickly spun out in the snow and the police blocked every direction. In the picture you can see the car pulled off in the snow. Notice the direction our car is headed. We had originally come from the opposite direction. There was an elementary school not to far down the road and an officer asked us to pull into the parking lot so they could get an official report from us. The officer asked if we saw the man drive off the road and into the train tracks. It was pretty ridiculous looking. He said the man was inebriated and would be charged with a DUI and thanked us for reporting it to the police. Sheehan wrote down our witness account and then we were on our way. Sheehan and I were a little adrenaline rushed from the experience but our "citizen's arrest" was clearly unforgettable.