Drunk dad uses nine-year-old daughter as designated driver

[meegbear]

Shawn Weimer needed a trip to a Detroit area gas station and convenience store at 3 a.m. last week, but knew he was too drunk to drive his GMC Safari. So he enlisted the nearest designated driver: His 9-year-old daughter, who used a booster seat to see and steer.

Weimer, 39, was arrested last week after another motorist saw the girl driving and called 911. Police later found this surveillance video from the convenience store, where Weimer brags about his chauffeur as she enjoys a late-night candy apple: "I got, I got a designated driver. Nine years old. Nine! Dad's drinking. Listen, we're leaving, and she's driving."

"She drove all the way here," he adds, to which the girl pipes up: "And I parked."

Weimer, a plumber, now faces charges of second- and fourth-degree child abuse, and extra criminal bonus points for prior convictions. But he didn't get a DUI.

http://jalopnik.com/5850828/drunk-dad-uses-nine+year+old-daughter-as-designated-driver

You can see the video in the above link

[HopeHoops]

1. At least it didn't end up as a Darwin award.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Hey, it worked for Homer Simpson...

[pacalo]

3. Time to wise up: Particularly when you're a parent, it's not a good thing to drink until

you lose your senses.

[leveymg]

4. Sounds like it could have been a scene from "Paper Moon".

[RedSpartan]

5. Ridiculous and dangerous, of course, but

I have to give the guy at least a LITTLE (very, very, very little) credit for recognizing that he was in no condition to drive himself.

[happyslug]

6. Reminds me of the time a Drunk killed a Duck by throwing a Rock at the Duck

Since it was a quick kill, crudity to Animals charges could NOT be brought up against him. Since it was a Duck on a Public Lake, trespassing charges could NOT be brought up against him. He had NOT been given a Breathalyzer test, so being drunk could NOT be brought up against him.

After it was determined no State charge could be brought up against him (he had committed no State Crime), they charged him with the FEDERAL Crime of taking waterfowl without a Federal Duck Stamp.

The "Federal Duck Stamp" has been required to be purchased by all water fowl hunters (And any other migratory bird hunters) since the early 1900s. The Duck Stamp pays for Federal projects to protect Water Fowl habitat. It covers any type of bird that is known to migrant from one part of North America to someplace else twice a year (i.e. Spring and Fall). While the Duck in Question apparently did NOT migrant, the fact that it COULD meant a duck stamp was needed, thus the rock thrower was convicted of the crime of taking game birds without a license and ended up serving FEDERAL Time instead of local Time (And many a criminal have told me, they serve Local Time any time if the alternative is State or Federal Time).

[pipi_k]

7. Nothing new to me...

My second husband was an alcoholic.

Half the time he would ask his older son (maybe 12) to drive himself and his little brother home while he (dad) was more or less passed out in the front seat after a Saturday visit with them. Then he would rouse himself enough to somehow drive the car back home.

One day he (drunk again) decided it would be neat to teach MY 11 year old son to drive.

Well, he could do what he wanted to with his own kids, but I was NOT happy with his antics with mine, and I gave him the business.

When you live with a drunk, there are very few things you don't see after a while. :(

We were legally separated when he died in 1987

[izquierdista]

8. How things have changed

My father used to drive the 1915 Oldsmobile touring car for Grandad when he was 9 years old. Of course, there weren't more than a handful of cars in the town and you couldn't go very fast on dirt roads. Getting it up to 30 mph between towns on the open road was letting it rip.