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Alleged drunken driver from tree: I’m an owl
Metro Daily News (MA) ^ | 1-9-2014 | Brad Petrishen

Posted on 03/17/2014 10:26:27 AM PDT by Renfield

An alleged drunken driver arrested while hiding 30 feet up a tree Friday on I-290 “rambled on about being an owl” when confronted, police wrote in court documents.

Troy A. Prockett, 37, of Hudson, was arraigned Monday on a slew of charges – including third-offense drunken driving – after town firefighters had to use a bucket truck to bring a cop 30 feet into a tree to arrest him.

Documents in Westborough District Court provide additional details about the unusual arrest, including the fact that police at one point feared the man’s daughter might have been ejected from his vehicle.

According to a police report, State Trooper Michael J. McCammon was driving on I-290 west at about 7 p.m. when he saw a white Nissan Maxima spinning out of control between the first two travel lanes. Snow flew up into the air, McCammon wrote, as the Maxima hit a snowbank near the breakdown lane and came to a stop resting partially in the first and second lanes.

McCammon said at least three other cars had to abruptly break and swerve in order to avoid a collision, at which time he activated his cruiser’s red and blues.

McCammon said the Maxima – which was missing its front bumper and had damage to its rear – then turned around and crossed into the second lane of travel, causing another vehicle to swerve to the left to avoid it.

McCammon said the Maxima then continued forward at about 20 mph for about three-quarters of a mile in the breakdown lane, refusing to stop even though McCammon’s cruiser was directly behind it with his lights activated.

After the car did stop, McCammon said the driver got out, ran in front of his cruiser and then “jumped over the guard rail running down the embankment into the woods.”

McCammon said he found Prockett’s wallet inside the Maxima - which he said reeked of alcohol - and called for help setting up a search. While calling the station, he learned Marlborough police had received a call from a woman at a gas station who reported she saw a drunken man driving the same vehicle with a child inside.

Police with a search dog then tracked the man’s sole footprints in the snow, McCammon wrote, finding a running jacket on the trail.

Emergency radio communications show it required police about an hour searching in the single-digit temperatures before they found Prockett hiding in a tree.

When asked to surrender, Prockett refused in “very slurred speech,” McCammon wrote, and then “asked if we had caught the guy who was driving and climbed higher in the tree.”

When police informed Prockett that there was only one set of footprints in the snow, Prochett reportedly replied that the driver “had carried him on his back.”

McCammon said Prockett then “continued speaking about what a good guy he was and rambling on about being an owl in a tree.

“He continually refused commands to climb down and instead climbed even higher, shaking the branches and saying, ‘Look it’s snowing.’”

McCammon said police continually asked Prockett where the child spotted in Marlborough was. He said Prockett, though admitting it was his daughter, provided false information about her whereabouts.

At that time, McCammon said police asked Northborough firefighters to come to the highway to help get Prockett down from the tree and “to utilize their thermal imaging device to search the crash area for the possibility of the child being ejected into the woods.”

Firefighters used their aerial tower to get up near Prockett, and then had to use a chainsaw to cut down branches so they could get to him. McCammon went up with a firefighter and arrested Prockett while in the bucket.

McCammon said Prockett eventually told police where his daughter was and they confirmed that she was safe.

Prockett, of 367 River Road, is charged with third-offense drunken driving, failure to stop for police, resisting arrest, leaving the scene of property damage and disturbing the peace. He was also ticketed for a marked lanes violation.

Prockett refused a Breathalyzer test, McCammon wrote, and could be heard telling someone on the phone,. “I think I’m borderline.”

Police said when they asked Prockett later why he refused to climb down the tree despite being surrounded, he told them he was “scared” because he already had two drunken driving charges.

“Soooooo, I just decided to go for a little run,” police quoted the man as saying.

When asked at what point in the night he had been driving with his daughter, he reportedly replied, “Awwww see, now you are just trying to get me to talk so you can add more charges.”

According to police, Prockett was has been convicted of drunken driving twice, once in 2003 and again in 2005. By refusing the Breathalyzer, his license is automatically suspended for five years.

Westborough District Court Judge Jennifer Stark ordered Prockett held on $3,000 bail. Records show he posted bail and was released.


TOPICS: Local News; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: drunk; massachusetts; oldnews; postedhereinjanuary
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Poster's Note: This is from a couple of months back, but I thought it worth posting.
1 posted on 03/17/2014 10:26:27 AM PDT by Renfield
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To: Renfield

Did he plead he was an ‘endangered specie’, ?

who knows, the right Judge..


2 posted on 03/17/2014 10:28:52 AM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi - Revolution is a'brewin!!!)
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To: Renfield

Could have killed multiple people. The best thing for his daughter is that they caught him and are taking his license. Sad.


3 posted on 03/17/2014 10:30:11 AM PDT by pieceofthepuzzle
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To: Renfield

Who gives a hoot?


4 posted on 03/17/2014 10:30:51 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: NormsRevenge

“Did he plead he was an ‘endangered specie’, ?”

A sotted owl.


5 posted on 03/17/2014 10:32:30 AM PDT by Stormdog (A rifle transforms one from subject to Citizen)
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To: Renfield

Who?...

6 posted on 03/17/2014 10:33:25 AM PDT by Hatteras
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To: Renfield

Well, he wasn’t drunk enough if could limb 30 feet in a tree without falling.


7 posted on 03/17/2014 10:35:04 AM PDT by Vinylly (?)
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To: Renfield

Jim Irsay, is that you?


8 posted on 03/17/2014 10:36:53 AM PDT by henkster (I don't like bossy women telling me what words I can't use.)
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To: Renfield

a former barred owl? or a to-be jail barred one?


9 posted on 03/17/2014 10:37:18 AM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Renfield

and people wonder why we call them “Mass-holes”


10 posted on 03/17/2014 10:41:20 AM PDT by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
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To: Renfield

He really endangered a lot of people, and so his drunk driving is not funny, but what he did after is pretty funny. I can just picture him up in a tree shaking snow down at the cops, claiming that he ran on some guys back. Funny stuff. I am very glad he didn’t kill someone, and glad that in that town, they don’t (yet) shoot people out of trees when they refuse to comply.


11 posted on 03/17/2014 10:42:18 AM PDT by Defiant (Let the Tea Party win, and we will declare peace on the American people and go home.)
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To: Hatteras

Ahhhh! Ya beat be to it.


12 posted on 03/17/2014 10:44:52 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (My whimsical litany of satyric prose and avarice pontification of wisdom demonstrates my concinnity.)
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To: henkster
Jim Irsay, is that you?

Did you see his tweet this morning? Tweet, tweet, tweet....

13 posted on 03/17/2014 10:45:48 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (My whimsical litany of satyric prose and avarice pontification of wisdom demonstrates my concinnity.)
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To: Renfield

Owling was popular for a short while.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owling_%28internet_meme%29#Owling

Owling photos.
http://www.oddee.com/item_97833.aspx


14 posted on 03/17/2014 10:46:12 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (Pubbies = national collectivists; Dems = international collectivists; We need a second party!)
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To: Renfield

“Ain’t nobody here but us chickens.”


15 posted on 03/17/2014 10:47:07 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: Tenacious 1

Read any of his wee-hours tweets for the past five years and you’d know he was drinking like a fish and popping pills like sweet tarts. I know he’s struggling with an addiction, but there is no “rock bottom” for him like there is for most guys.

He won’t lose his NFL franchise, it’s guaranteed wealth, and he’ll just keep rolling along to an early grave. He’s my age but looks 20 years older.


16 posted on 03/17/2014 10:49:42 AM PDT by henkster (I don't like bossy women telling me what words I can't use.)
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Comment #17 Removed by Moderator

To: All

What waggle-tongues you all are!


18 posted on 03/17/2014 10:51:09 AM PDT by Renfield (Turning apples into venison since 1999!)
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To: Renfield

Waggle-Tongue?

Is that like whimsical humor and stuff?


19 posted on 03/17/2014 10:53:13 AM PDT by Tenacious 1 (My whimsical litany of satyric prose and avarice pontification of wisdom demonstrates my concinnity.)
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To: Stormdog

ROTFLMAO!


20 posted on 03/17/2014 11:05:55 AM PDT by milagro (There is no peace in appeasement!)
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