Drunk Driver Suspect in Bayside Ditch Swears He's Home in Pewaukee

A Pewaukee man swore over and over again to Bayside police early Saturday morning he was at home in Pewaukee - really, he was in a ditch along Lake Drive. 

Police found the silver Ford Focus on the west side of the road in a patch of trees facing near East Donges Bay Road and North Lake Drive around 6 a.m. There was a man sleeping in the driver’s seat according to the police report. An officer knocked on the window for about a minute but the man didn’t move.

The report says he eventually turned his head and waved for the officer to go away. After several more attempts, he finally realized the man knocking on his window was a police officer and he began to open his window. He opened the rear window first, then the front drivers side. The report says officers could smell alcohol coming from inside the car and the man’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy. 

When asked how he ended up in the ditch, the 25-year-old said he was at home in Pewaukee. The officer told the man he wasn’t in Pewaukee and asked the man for his license, but he supplied two credit cards first, dropping them on the floor when trying to hand them over. The report says the man kept saying he was in Pewaukee and hadn’t been in a crash.

After performing poorly on the field sobriety tests he was arrested for OWI. While at the station, the man requested to have a blood test done instead of a breathalyzer test. He was taken to Saint Mary’s hospital in Ozaukee County and the blood test was performed. He was cited for OWI and unsafe lane deviation. He was released to his girlfriend at 9:07 a.m.