Spirit Lake, Iowa Man Charged with DUI, Stealing Officer’s Mountain Dew

If the night of drinking is over, a good beverage to have is a Mountain Dew. But not if it belongs to the cop who is arresting you.

According to NWIowa.com, it all started with a report to police of a car stopped in the middle of the road roughly a mile and a half outside of Little Rock early on Sunday morning. When police arrived they found 38-year-old Benjamin Gray of Spirit Lake sitting in the driver’s seat, slumped over, with his pants around his thighs. He had bloodshot eyes and was reportedly slurring his words pretty well. He would be charged with DUI.

The officer escorted Gray back to his patrol car and then went back to Gray’s car to see if he could find any evidence of what he was on to ensure his wellbeing. The officer did find some marijuana as well as a glass pipe with residue in it, which meant Gray would be getting popped for that as well.

But Gray still had one more crime to commit, and it was a big one.

While the officer was searching his vehicle, Gray spotted a can of Mountain Dew that was unopened in the cup holder of the police car. Doing what any intoxicated person would likely do when given such an opportunity, especially with a likely case of cottonmouth going on, he opened the can and commenced refreshment.

Upon returning and discovering that his soft drink was no longer his, the officer then tacked on the charge of fifth-degree theft.

I’m not sure who I would favor in this. If I was the officer who lost his Mountain Dew I would be pretty irritated, but if I was the accused stuck in the cop car with a likely case of cottonmouth, the expectation that he would not drink that beverage is a silly one at best.

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