Would you ever let your dog drive your car? Well, one woman hoping to dodge a drunk driving charge used that as her alibi. Bet you can guess how that went with the judge.
Wales Online reports 47-year-old Melissa Jenkins Johanson had one too many before she hopped in her car and drove away from the Ocean Café Bar and Restaurant. She attempted to exit the parking lot four times; a man noticed she was having difficulty and called police.
Police say she had a half-empty bottle of wine in her car at the time.
Johanson found success on her fifth try, but missed the road. Instead, she moseyed down the footpath and eventually hit a bus stop.
“She eventually went onto the main road, where she paused for several minutes,” prosecutor Hannah George told the court. “She then went to the Seaview Hotel and then went on to Tesco, where she was caught on CCTV footage.”
Apparently Johanson wanted to get some shopping done, then went home. Eventually, two officers caught up with her and asked about the incident with her car.
“The officers arrived at her address and found the car substantially damaged,” said George. “The officers then entered the property and were immediately hit with the smell of alcohol.”
The woman didn’t take responsibility for the crash and instead blamed her dog for the whole thing.
She was arrested after refusing multiple sobriety and blood alcohol tests. Apparently the woman had been banned from driving for a similar drunk driving incident last November.
She was sentenced to serve a year and must complete a 15-day rehabilitation course, in addition to 150 hours of volunteer work.
She was also banned from driving for three years.