An Illinois Woman Drove Around With A Tree Lodged In Her Car’s Grille, And Yes, She Got A DUI [Video]
The Roselle, Illinois Police Department has released a video of one of the stranger DUI cases they’ve seen: a drunk driver drove around with a 15-foot tree lodged in her car’s grille before getting pulled over.
As the Huffington Post reports, the suburban Chicago police department pulled over Maryann Christy, of nearby Schaumburg, at 11:10 p.m. on January 23 after other drivers noticed the DUI suspect driving around with a tree stuck in the front grille. Roselle Deputy Chief Roman Tarchala, speaking to the Chicago Tribune, said that no one is really sure how big the tree was – just that it was big.
“We didn’t stand there and measure it, but it was a big tree.”
Say what you will about Chief Trachala, he’s not one to mince words. Neither, apparently, are his officers: the report of the incident said it succinctly.
“Stopped for driving with a large tree embedded in the front grille.”
Fortunately, the Tribune has fleshed out the story a bit more. It seems that the DUI suspect admitted to hitting the tree, although she told police she couldn’t remember where. Cops at the scene said she smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests. She was taken to jail and charged with DUI.
Getting a DUI charge is bad enough, but being an object of ridicule and public shame is another matter entirely, and the Roselle Police Department has risen to the occasion for Ms. Christy. On the department’s Facebook page, you can see photos of the DUI suspect’s escapades.
As the department noted on its Facebook page, the pictures of the tree lodged in the car, while hilarious, aren’t enough for curious Rosellians – they wanted video too.
“Since we are new to Facebook, we were not quite sure what to expect from our post. We have received requests to post the video from this call. Some just didn’t believe it was true, so we have attached a short video of this call.”
So if you’ve ever wanted to see a cop’s dash cam video of a DUI suspect driving around suburban Chicago with a tree lodged in its grille, today is your lucky day.
What nobody at the Roselle Police Department saw coming, apparently, was that the video of their unusual DUI arrest has gone viral. As of this writing, the video of the tree lodged in the suspect’s grille has been viewed over 235,000 times – and that’s just the version of the video that’s on the department’s official Facebook page. It’s also been posted on YouTube by several other news sites, including CNN.
So congratulations Maryann Christy of Schaumburg, Illinois – you are now a viral video star!
Meanwhile, the people of Roselle, as well as Facebook users worldwide, are enjoying a few laughs at their town’s new viral video star.
“and she would be my neighbor, lives across the street from me, and really no big surprise”
“look at this camouflage”
“Seriously! Wow surprised the car would still be running. Better a tree than a person!”
“Was [she] charged with leafing the scene of an accident?”
As of this writing, it is unclear if any property owners in and around the Roselle-Schaumburg area have reported any trees missing.
The woman who drove around town with a tree lodged in her car’s grille and got a DUI for her trouble is scheduled to appear in court in April.
[Image via Facebook]
