Officers in Washington were called to reports of a motorist driving ‘recklessly’ at around 1 pm on Sunday (29 March) and ended up embroiled in a 100mph chase.
As officers tried to corner the car to stop it, they spotted that there appeared to be a dog in the driver’s seat, with the man steering (and presumably reaching the pedals) from the passenger seat.
The vehicle was eventually halted using spikes, at which point the man in the passenger seat said he was ‘teaching his dog to drive’ – as though cops at this point would be like, ‘Oh of course, sorry to bother you, best be on your way – good luck with your test pooch!’
No, unsurprisingly, 51-year-old Alberto Tito Alejandro was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, hit and run, driving under the influence and felony eluding, with his bond set at $8,500 (£6,876).
State Trooper Heather Axtman said it was ‘nothing shy of miraculous’ that nobody had been hurt in the chase.
“When we took him into custody… he admitted to our troopers that he was trying to teach his dog to drive.
“I wish I could make this up. I’ve been a trooper for almost 12 years and wow, I’ve never heard this excuse. I’ve been in a lot of high-speed chases, I’ve stopped a lot of cars, and never have I gotten an excuse that they were teaching their dog how to drive.”
Yeah, not really the strongest defence is it?
As for the pit bull, she was described by Axtman as a ‘very sweet girl’ and has been taken to an animal shelter.
Bizarrely though, this isn’t the first time a ‘driving’ dog has hit headlines. Last November, residents of a quiet cul-de-sac in Florida were left scratching their heads after they saw a grey sedan going around in circles, seemingly with no driver.
However, there was a driver, he just wasn’t human.
According to local reports, the car’s owner had just parked up and stepped out of the car for a moment – the owner’s dog then made his way to the front of the car and somehow managed to knock it into reverse.
The poor pooch spent almost an hour going in circles before police came to deal with the situation.
Speaking to local news, amused neighbour Anna Sabol said: “It was weird, I figured ‘how the heck did they manage to do that’. He was a better driver than a lot of them I’ve seen.
“Then I saw another cop car and another cop car. I laughed, I thought they should give the dog a licence to drive.”
