Pat Dykstra: Drunk and Driving

According to Pat Dykstra, she wasn't thinking when she dialed 911. I buy that.

Her story sounds like something from The Onion. Unreal.

Woman reports her own drunken driving

A rural Fox Lake woman early Sunday was able to give a detailed description of a suspected drunken driver and the suspect 's vehicle to a Dodge County sheriff 's dispatcher.

That 's because the woman was calling from that vehicle -- a tan 2002 pickup truck -- and she was driving it, Dodge County Sheriff Todd Nehls said.

The woman 's boyfriend in the passenger seat suggested she call 911 to report her own drunken driving, so she did, Nehls said. The boyfriend was not driving, she said, because he was too drunk.

The call came in at 12:29 a.m. Sunday on the county 911 line as a hang-up call from a cell phone, Nehls said.

Dispatchers used a reverse 911 directory and called the phone, which was answered by a woman who identified herself as Patricia Dykstra, 51. She said her boyfriend made her call, because "somebody seems to think I can 't drive home straight. "

When the dispatcher asked her why, she said, "He seems to think I 'm too intoxicated to drive. "

During a relatively pleasant conversation with the dispatcher -- a recording of which Nehls released Monday -- Dykstra gave her name, location and vehicle description before saying she should probably hang up because "I don 't like being on the phone while driving. "

Asked by the dispatcher if she had too much to drink, she said "I don 't think so, ma 'am. "

She said she was almost home and gave the intersection. Throughout the 3 -minute call, however, the dispatcher did not suggest the woman pull over. Nehls said the dispatcher assumed the woman had already stopped, although her last advice to Dykstra was, "So Pat, drive carefully, OK?"

Was the dispatcher drunk?

"Drive carefully, OK?"

Good grief!

The number one thing for the dispatcher to establish would have been that Dykstra wasn't driving at the time of the call.

Dykstra was definitely drunk and definitely driving.

She had consumed a six-pack of beer, she said, and her boyfriend a 12-pack.

Yeah, that would do it.

TMJ4's Lauren Leamanczyk interviewed Dykstra:

She says she doesn't know why she let [her 60-year-old boyfriend] convince her to call 911.

"I'm not sure," she said. "I think I just wasn't really thinking at the time."

That's an understatement.

By the time police found her, she was home and no longer behind the wheel. She was safe. Luckily, she didn't kill anyone.

..."I was already in my pajamas going to bed," she said.

She failed a sobriety test with an estimated .14 blood alcohol content. Police issued Dykstra a [$740] ticket for O.W.I.

Sheriff Todd Nehls says Dykstra did the right thing by calling them. “I think a judge will look at her and say 'you know what, you stepped up to the plate. You did the right thing.' I think it’s commendable,” he said.

Huh?

What is Nehls talking about?

Dykstra didn't "step up to the plate" and do the right thing.

She drunk dialed 911 WHILE she was driving.

There's absolutely nothing commendable about that. Nothing.