AK inebriate service van taken on drunken joyride

[July 11, 2011]  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Anchorage police say a city van used to pick up drunken people was taken on a joyride by a man suspected of drunken driving.

The Anchorage Daily News reports that 35-year-old Donny H. Weston was arrested late Thursday after police say he got into a Community Service Patrol van parked with the keys in the engine. Police say social workers were attending inebriated people when Weston got into the van.

Police say Weston drove the van for significant distance, including driving against traffic, and he eventually crashed the van into a bus and ditched it.

The van is part of a city program that picks up inebriated people and shuttles them to sleeping center.

Police say the inebriated men in the back of the van didn't notice the joyride.

[Associated Press]

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