Photo: Hernando County Jail
A Florida man was arrested for allegedly driving his lawnmower drunk down a busy highway, FOX 13 reports.
Christopher Spain, 38, was charged with driving under the influence after being found sitting on a Gravely Pro Turn 252 on the shoulder of the Suncoast Parkway last Friday (July 18) morning. Officers received calls regarding a man erratically driving a lawnmower on the highway at around 8:30 a.m. local time and a trooper arrived at the scene to find Spain about 20 minutes later.
The responding trooper noted that Spain showed signs of impairment which included pinpoint pupils, flushed skin, dry mouth and irritation inside of his nose as he kept sniffing, spitting and clearing his throat while speaking. The trooper offered to give Spain a field sobriety test multiple times, however, he declined, having allegedly become uncooperative after the third attempt to do so.
Spain was then arrested and booked into the Hernando County Jail, having later been released on a $500 bond that same afternoon, according to FOX 13. A similar incident previously took place in Florida when Paul Burke was arrested for DUI while driving a lawnmower in the middle of a Marion County highway in 2020.
Video footage of the 2020 incident showed Burke, who had previously been convicted of DUI three times, telling a Marion County Sheriff's Office deputy that he had "no driver's license at all" and claiming field sobriety tests were unnecessary as he admitted to drinking prior to performing the exercises.