Video: Driver With 15-Foot Tree Stuck In Grille Becomes Facebook Famous
By Mae Rice in News on Mar 8, 2016 4:00PM
Drinking and driving is bad enough, but police in Roselle stopped a driver for a rarer crime: drinking and driving with a roughly 15-foot-tall tree stuck in the car’s front grille.
"We didn't stand there and measure it, but it was a big tree," Roselle Deputy Chief Roman Tarchala told the Tribune Monday.
Documentation of the stop has since gone viral on social media.
The incident happened back in Jan. 23, when police apprehended the driver headed south on Roselle Road, near the Irving Park intersection. The officer who stopped the tree-car hybrid noticed the car’s airbags were inflated, suggesting the woman had recently hit the tree.
The driver, Maryann Christy, 54, failed sobriety tests when she was pulled over, and told officers she had hit the tree somewhere in her hometown of Schaumburg, though she couldn’t remember where, authorities told the Tribune.
The January incident gained new life on March 4, when the Roselle Police department posted pictures of the incident to Facebook, followed by video for the skeptics.
Both posts blew up, especially the photo post, which racked up more than 22,000 shares.
A few weeks ago, a Roselle police officer saw a car driving southbound on Roselle Road with a 15-foot tree embedded in...
Posted by Roselle Police Department on Friday, March 4, 2016
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.The first portion of the video is in slow-motion and shows the car traveling in the opposite direction; the second portion shows the officer trying to stop the car and then as he approaches the driver. Yes, it is true and it happened! DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!
Posted by Roselle Police Department on Monday, March 7, 2016