Kids say the darnedest things. Take the 9-year-old
who was sitting in a booster seat behind the wheel of a van when she was
pulled over by police outside Detroit. “What did you stop me for?” she
reportedly told an officer. “I was driving good.”
Maybe
so. But Brownstown Township police say they nonetheless arrested her
father, Shawn Weimer, 39, for allegedly employing the girl as his
chauffeur after he had too much to drink.
Surveillance
video from a gas station convenience store shows the man bragging that
his daughter was only 9 years old and “drove all the way here … and
parked!” He refers to her as his “designated driver.”
The video also shows the man dancing in the parking lot while the girl walks back to their van.
Someone
who overheard Weimer in the gas station alerted police. Weimer was
arrested about 3 a.m. on Oct. 8 when police pulled over his van and
indeed found the girl in the booster seat behind the wheel. Brownstown
Township Detective Lt. Robert Grant said the girl acted surprised when
the officer appeared at her window.
She said—and we’ll repeat it: “What did you stop me for? I was driving good,” Grant told Tthe Detroit Free Press.
The
story’s humorous elements have resulted in widespread online attention.
But the chuckles end with a closer look at the details.
The
girl told police her father had allowed her to drive before when he had
been drinking whiskey all night. The father now faces child abuse
charges and up to 15 years in prison because of previous convictions,
including a 2007 DUI charge that involved a crash, according to the Free
Press.
The child has been turned over to a grandfather because police could not find her mother, who is separated from Weimer.
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©2011 the Los Angeles Times
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