Watch CBS News

Alleged Drunk Driver Gets Tree Stuck In Grille

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's not every day you see a car going down the street with a tree embedded in its grille, but that's exactly what happened a few weeks ago in west suburban Roselle.

Around 11 p.m. on Jan. 23, police were contacted about a car spotted driving down the Roselle Road with a 15-foot tree sticking straight up out of its front end.

Roselle Deputy Police Chief Roman Tarchala said an officer stopped the car, and the driver said she had hit a tree somewhere, but couldn't remember where. Maryann Christy was arrested for drunk driving.

"I would say she probably went a few miles, at least," he said.

A few weeks ago, a Roselle police officer saw a car driving southbound on Roselle Road with a 15-foot tree embedded in...

Posted by Roselle Police Department on Friday, March 4, 2016

On Friday, Roselle Police posted two pictures of the car and the tree on Facebook, and have received thousands of comments. The post has been shared nearly 20,000 times as of Monday afternoon.

Since we are new to Facebook, we were not quite sure what to expect from our post. We have received requests to post the video from this call. Some just didn't believe it was true, so we have attached a short video of this call. The first portion of the video is in slow-motion and shows the car traveling in the opposite direction; the second portion shows the officer trying to stop the car and then as he approaches the driver. Yes, it is true and it happened! DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Posted by Roselle Police Department on Monday, March 7, 2016

"We wanted to put something out there on basically not to drink and drive, and we had no idea that it was going to generate this much interest," Tarchala said.

Police said Christy, 54, of Schaumburg, is due back in court in April.

Podcast

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.