Thursday, 10 October 2013

'I'm Jack Sparrow'

Its amazing what people will do when they are the worse for a drop of the hard stuff. Somehow it seems that the inland waterways provide an special attraction for the inebriated.

Alison Whelan drank alcohol and ate poisonous nightshade before boarding the ferry and setting it adrift up river on the tide. She was on the River Dart and shouting 'I'm Jack Sparrow and I'm a pirate' as the ferry drifted away from police on the shore. She has since been jailed after she stole the ferry and it smashed into boats.

Alison Whelan, boarded the 45ft Dart Princess with a friend after a two-day bender. When she undid mooring ropes which set the ferry drifting on the tide. Whelan taunted police, shouting: “What are you going to do now?” and “I believe this is out of your jurisdiction!” Thirty police, a lifeboat crew, Coastguards and paramedics had to be called. When the cops finally arrested her, she told them: “We’d have ended up in St Tropez if we hadn’t been caught.” Magistrates jailed her for 122 days for aggravated vehicle taking. Her companion Locke was fined £100 last year for assaulting an ambulance technician.

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Foolish behaviour on a boat is not confined to this country. Erin Brockovich has been arrested in Las Vegas for being drunk in charge of a boat. The environmental activist, who became famous when Julia Roberts starred in a film about her life, was spotted struggling to moor her boat in the harbour near Boulder City. A game warden described Ms Brockovich as exhibiting “several signs of an intoxicated boater” and called the police. The 52-year-old later failed a sobriety test and her blood alcohol was shown to be twice the legal drink-driving limit.

Nevada Department of Wildlife spokesman Edwin Lyngar said: “She was obviously struggling to put the boat in the slip, and if you've had any experience, it's a simple enough operation”. He added: “Too many people think drinking and boating go together. We don't have a problem if people drink. Just have a designated operator.” Julia Roberts won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Ms Brockovich in 2000. Since the film, the real Erin Brockovich became a celebrity in her own right. A prominent environmental campaigner, Ms Brockovich also starred in her own television series ‘ Final Justice’, the title of which seems quite appropriate in the circumstances.
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For instance How drunk do you have to be to do something like this? 


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