TORONTO -- A man has been charged with driving while intoxicated after he was caught riding a lawnmower in the middle of a Florida highway.
The incident was recorded by the body camera of Marion County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Richard Jentsch, who responded to the call on Aug. 5.
The bodycam footage, which was verified and corroborated by Storyful newswire agency, showed Jentsch approaching the man as he drove a lawnmower along Highway 316 in Fort McCoy, a community about 160 km northwest of Orlando, Fla.
The nearly three-minute video, which the Marion County Sheriff’s Office posted to its Facebook page on Aug.10, began with Jentsch asking the man if he knew he was driving in the middle of the road. Jentsch then asked him how much he’d had to drink that night, to which the man replied, “A couple.”
When Jentsch asked the man, who was seen struggling to stand up straight, for a second time if he wanted to complete the field sobriety test, he said, “No sir, just take me to jail.”
The sheriff’s office identified the man as Paul Burke and said he has three prior DUI convictions, has had his license suspended three times and revoked four times for refusing to submit a breath sample.
