Police Reports: There Is More Than One Way to Drive Impaired

There is a lot of focus lately on Wisconsin's toughened but still comparitively lenient drunken driving laws.

But police are also seeing more cases of drivers impaired by the abuse or misuse of prescription drugs – as in the following case of a woman who should definitely not have been on the road in her condition.

At 12:27 p.m. last Sunday, a 48-year-old Milwaukee woman was arrested for driving while impaired after a resident of the 2400 block of North 68th Street called to report that he had seen her crash into the curb and over it, almost hitting a tree and flattening two tires.

He said she got out of the car, unsteady on her feet, looked at the damage for a couple of minutes and then drove off. He followed in his car, notifying police of her whereabouts until they arrived.

She was driving 5 miles per hour when an officer caught up, and when stopped she said she knew nothing of any damage to her car and did not know what day it was or where she was.

She was holding an empty prescription bottle for Xanax.

She failed sobriety tests and was taken to the hospital for a mandatory blood draw.

In other recent incidents:

Thursday

The custodian of reported that overnight someone had broken two windows in the school and torn off an electrical cover box. Police found that vandals had removed two steel poles that line the driveway and used them to smash out the windows.

Wednesday

A resident of the 2200 block of North 63rd Street reported that between 6 and 8:15 a.m. someone stole her 2008 Toyota Highlander out of her driveway. She said the vehicle had been locked at the time. She noted that she had lost a set of keys to it a month ago.

Tuesday

A 51-year-old Milwaukee man, Gilberto M. Garza Jr., was charged in absentia with violation of a harassment injunction and bail jumping after he approached a Wauwatosa woman again while under a no-contact order and while he already had two open cases for harassment arrests in June. Garza was being sought on a warrant signed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.

A private security officer working for reported that audio equipment had been stolen from the press box in Raabe Stadium at the college’s athletic complex at 10200 Watertown Plank Rd. He said the press box is supposed to be kept locked when not in use but that numerous people have keys and he often finds it left unlocked when it shouldn’t be. Missing were three microphones, an audio mixer and a processor.

A resident of the 2400 block of North 73rd Street reported that overnight someone entered her unlocked garage and stole a bicycle.

Monday

A resident of the 4100 block of North 96th Street reported that someone had entered his locked car while it was parked behind his home and stolen his stereo faceplate and a class ring. The thief had used a “slim Jim” device to unlock the rear passenger door.

A Milwaukee man reported that someone had stolen his locked bicycle while he was at work at . He had locked it to a stair railing as he often had and found the cable cut and his $1,500 Sanvick road bike missing.

At 2:58 p.m., a 17-year-old Milwaukee girl was arrested for retail theft at Mayfair Mall after she was spotted with a foil-lined bag, found by police to contain clothing and jewelry stolen from , and .

A resident of the 2500 block of North 62nd Street reported that overnight someone had entered his unlocked car in his driveway and stolen his sunglasses, change and his checkbook.

A resident of the 600 block of North 76th Street reported that overnight someone had entered two unlocked cars in his driveway and stolen 30 music discs, a garage door opener and a set of keys to an apartment complex.

At 2:14 a.m., a 24-year-old Wauwatosa man was arrested for drunken driving, first offense, after he crashed his motorcycle in the 4000 block of Glenway Street. An officer found the man bleeding from his mouth and saying that he had lost control of his bike and had to lay it down. He smelled of alcohol and admitted to having been drinking with friends before riding.