Dispatch Audio Captures Woman Self-Reporting Drunk Driving
Sep 10, 2019, 11:13 PM | Updated: Jul 16, 2023, 4:08 pm
BOUNTIFUL, Utah – Newly released audio recordings show a woman called dispatch to report a drunk driver while she, herself, was intoxicated.
The woman was animated and emphatic as she called in to report the suspected drunk driver, but something about her just didn’t sound right to dispatcher Cassidy Mizell.
“She’s hiccupping and burping,” Mizell recalled of the phone conversation that began just before 5:00 p.m. on August 16.
It only took a few short questions for the dispatcher to figure out the problem — the woman herself seemed to be intoxicated.
“I thought maybe there wasn’t really another drunk driver and she was actually calling about herself,” Mizell said.
A recording of the call, which was released to KSL Tuesday, captured the woman laughing at times as she described, with slurred speech, the supposed other driver.
“She drive next to the police department!” the woman nearly yelled, subsequently adding that she was close to the Woods Cross police station. “She was swerving all over the road!”
Mizell told the woman, who initially called a non-emergency line, to dial 911, which she did after a couple of promptings.
That helped Mizell and others in the Bountiful dispatch center pinpoint the woman’s location to the parking lot of an abandoned building on 800 West in Woods Cross.
As officers arrived, police said the woman was inside the SUV she described as belonging to the drunk driver.
“Uh oh,” the woman could be heard laughing as officers pulled up on scene. “Oh no!”
According to investigators, the woman took off running, only to be caught and detained by officers.
“And then later at the hospital, she called us and said that she was ready to go to jail,” Mizell said. “Maybe it was a cry for help?”
The woman, according to court records, was charged with misdemeanor DUI with an open container and she agreed to a deal that dropped the latter count.
Court records showed a 6-month jail sentence was suspended in favor of probation.
Mizell said she was glad she was able to make a difference that day and likely will remember that call for years to come.
“This one is going to stand out,” she said. “I’ll probably never forget (it).”
