Woman Gets DUI in Fast Food Drive-In

A woman in Elizabethton, Tennessee, was charged with DUI on Saturday after allegedly endangering customers of a local Sonic fast food joint and mistaking a police officer for a restaurant car hop.

On Saturday evening, police responded to a 911 call which described a woman driving erratically in a Sonic parking lot, before pulling into a parking space at the restaurant's drive-in, the Johnson City Press reports. A later call reported a woman sprawled over the steering wheel of her car in the parking lot.

Elizabethton police officer Sarah Ellison reported that the driver, Veletta Cuba Newman, was slumped forward with her keys in the car's ignition when she arrived. After waking, Newman sat up and drowsily handed Ellison a $20 bill, according to the officer.

Ellison told the news source that when she identified herself as a police officer, not a Sonic waitress, the 31-year-old driver continued to hold out her money, evidently unaware of police presence.

After arresting Newman, the officer reportedly found a used syringe, a spoon with white powder and several bottles of prescription medicine in the car.

According to a study by Allstate Insurance Company, impaired drivers are estimated to cost American taxpayers $21 - $24 billion dollars per year.