A Canadian man was arrested for driving a — get this — Barbie-themed Power Wheels while under the influence of alcohol last week.
The incident took place in Prince George, British Columbia, on September 5th. Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) reported spotting the pink, toy-sized Jeep Wrangler driving down the road near 15th Avenue and Nicholson Street around 9:00 in the morning and decided to issue a traffic stop — creating an unintentionally hilarious photo opportunity for passersby.
According to Global News Canada, Kasper Lincoln said he had borrowed the Barbie-themed toy from his roommate’s daughter so he could obtain a Slurpee from a nearby 7-Eleven.
“It’s not like it was a high-speed chase,” he explained. “I waited until it was safe, and when I crossed the road I was doing my hand signals.”
This did not prevent the police from stopping Mr. Lincoln, however.
“While this may seem like something that should have flown under the radar, it was kind of out of the ordinary, as well as this is a busy area during morning commute and put other drivers on the road at risk, as well that particular driver himself,” Cpl. Jennifer Cooper, media relations officer for the Prince George RCMP told Global News.
“Motorists aren’t used to looking out for someone kind of at that level, the toy car level. So it was enough to start a traffic stop.”
During the stop, responding RCMP learned that the man had a suspended license. While that doesn’t exactly seem pertinent to driving a toy car on public roads, police also subjected Lincoln to a breathalyzer — which he failed.
He was arrested for prohibited driving and issued a 90-day driving prohibition, which will presumably be tacked onto his current suspension. But Lincoln was reportedly insistent that he hadn’t had anything to drink that morning and had just woken up, deciding to take the Barbie Jeep to avoid getting into trouble.
“I didn’t think you could get a DUI in a Barbie truck,” he noted.
That depends largely upon where you’re driving it. The RCMP noted that “any vehicle on a roadway that is powered by anything other than muscular power fits into the definition of a motor vehicle and requires a licensed driver and insurance.” However, laws vary quite a bit between regions.
For example, some parts of the United States will absolutely issue DUIs for bicyclists and others will not. The same goes for riding horses or toy cars under the influence, suggesting you check your local laws before doing something that sounds like it’d be funny while drunk.
Even in those states that don’t explicitly state that it’s illegal, officers could still charge you with being “drunk and disorderly.” What constitutes the charge is often up to the discretion of the officer involved and holding up traffic while cruising in a child-sized automobile may just qualify. This is also the case the RCMP made against Mr. Lincoln to initiate their traffic stop.
Police reported that other drivers had to go around the pink Wrangler and had concerns that some may not even be able to see it due to its small size. The opinion that its operator may likewise be inebriated was probably encouraged by Lincoln wearing Pit Viper sunglasses and a shirt reading “let’s do it in the dumbest way possible” while being a full-grown man driving a Barbie-themed Power Wheels on public roads. His official court date is scheduled for December.
Interestingly, this is not the first instance of someone getting busted for drunk driving a toy Jeep in recent memory. Two years ago, an American man was issued a DUI for piloting another Power Wheels by the Indiana State Police. This time it was the blue, non-Barbie Jeep Wrangler model.
In both cases, the individuals involved hardly seemed like a serious threat to society. However, law enforcement believed they posed enough danger to themselves to be stopped and opted to issue an arrest on legal grounds. There are probably similar cases where the police threw toy cars into the back of the vehicle, only to offer a ride home and warning. But those stories don’t typically make the news.
[Images: Prince George RCMP; Mattel]
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