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+--- Thread: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! (/showthread.php?tid=86743)
Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - MacManMaz - 10-27-2009
So many funny things in this article, read the whole thing...
TOWN OF TONAWANDA: Costumed man drives into river
Hamburg man submerges car while trying to access I-190
By Dan Pye
Niagara Gazette
A man dressed in a cow suit was charged with DWI Sunday after driving his car into the Niagara River.
Town of Tonawanda police were called to the water treatment plant at 218 Aqua Lane for a call of a person in a cow suit showing up, asking for help and then running away just after 3 a.m. When officers arrived, they found Jeffrey S. Barber walking along the south fence of the plant and asked him to come over to the car. His cow suit was noticeably soaked with water from the chest down.
When asked what happened, Barber said, “I just drove my car into the water,” according to reports.
Barber went on to say he had been driving back to his home in Hamburg from a party in the town when his GPS device told him to take a right to get onto the 190. He took a hard right at that time, leading him down Aqua Lane, off the small boat docks and into the Niagara River.
The car’s engine and electrical system stopped working, so Barber said he “smashed the window with his left palm like he saw how to do on TV.”
He then climbed out, cutting his left hand and getting shards of glass into the left front pocket of his coat. After making his way to the water buildings — which he mistook for the University at Buffalo campus — Barber asked for help through the building’s public speaker.
Once officers made sure Barber was safe, they went to locate his car to make sure there were no passengers. Barber said he was riding alone, but when officers smelled the odor of alcohol on his breath they wanted to make sure. To their surprise, the car was nowhere to be found.
The Sheridan Park fire company responded with a ladder truck to hoist a light and search for the vehicle through the water, but had no luck either. A worker at the water plant tried to review the tape from a surveillance camera to see what happened to the car, but accidentally erased the tape in the process. Police were also unable to get the address for the party from Barber since it was in the GPS system still located in the car. Barber’s cell phone containing all his phone numbers was also soaked and ruined during his escape.
Town police then called the City of Tonawanda police department, which has its own dive team. The team already had a practice scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday, so they conducted their dive at Aqua Lane Park. The divers located the car 50 feet from the shore and hauled it back to land, locating four whiskey bottles, three beer bottles and the head of the cow costume in the vehicle.
Barber failed multiple field sobriety tests and a chemical breath test revealed a 0.20 percent blood alcohol content, leading to an aggravated DWI charge, the report said.
Truth Funnier Than Fiction
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - davester - 10-27-2009
This exact scenario was on an episode of The Office (american version) a couple of seasons ago.
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - cbelt3 - 10-27-2009
Proof that god DOES watch out for fools and drunks. One very lucky fool. Isn't the Niagara very fast at that point ?
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - RAMd®d - 10-27-2009
The car’s engine and electrical system stopped working, so Barber said he “smashed the window with his left palm like he saw how to do on TV.”
I'm curious-- was the car submerged at that time? Even with the electrics out, the door should have been able to be opened from the inside. Water pressure might have made it difficult to open. And then-- he was drunk.
I remember a while back in Oakland CA, a woman on her way from work to a meeting, drove in the fog, down what she thought was a street. It turned out to be a boat ramp at a marina. I think it took a week to check the area and find her. Somebody else did something similar a year before, but I don't think they died.
So I could see how a drunk, listening to his GPS (which we know is often out of date) could take a wrong turn and drive into a river.
Here's hoping he gets some jail time, anyway.
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - OWC Jamie - 10-27-2009
cbelt3 wrote:
Proof that god DOES watch out for fools and drunks. One very lucky fool. Isn't the Niagara very fast at that point ?
Occaisional mission failure is also a possibility.
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - bazookaman - 10-27-2009
davester wrote:
This exact scenario was on an episode of The Office (american version) a couple of seasons ago.
I was thinking the same thing.
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - josntme - 10-27-2009
RAMd®d wrote:
I remember a while back in Oakland CA, a woman on her way from work to a meeting, drove in the fog, down what she thought was a street. It turned out to be a boat ramp at a marina. I think it took a week to check the area and find her. Somebody else did something similar a year before, but I don't think they died.
This happened outside of Austin, TX near my daughters house.
Re: Utterly hilarious... the GPS made him do it! - MacManMaz - 10-28-2009
josntme wrote:
[quote=RAMd®d]
I remember a while back in Oakland CA, a woman on her way from work to a meeting, drove in the fog, down what she thought was a street. It turned out to be a boat ramp at a marina. I think it took a week to check the area and find her. Somebody else did something similar a year before, but I don't think they died.
This happened outside of Austin, TX near my daughters house.
I'm sure driving into the water has happened a lot. But in a cow suit? I think we got rest of you on this one.
BTW, the current is usually about 9 knots there and once the water gets halfway up your window, it is impossible for anyone to open the door, drunk or not. I'm amazed that he had the mental capacity to smash the window with a 2.0 alchohol level. Indeed a higher power was watching out for him.