PIERCE COUNTY, Washington — A woman was arrested four times on Whippet DUI-related incidents in the span of two weeks in Washington and held on 2 $50,000 DUI warrants.
On Nov. 12, around 1 p.m., a Pierce County woman was sitting in her car, and allegedly inhaling nitrous oxide commonly referred to as “whippets”, according to our sister station, KIRO 7.
A witness said the woman looked sick and impaired while the car was running, and was worried that she might drive off and injure someone.
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Upon arrival at the scene for a wellness check, Pierce County deputies said they allegedly saw the woman throwing empty nitrous cans into the back seat, and she was nude from the waist down.
The woman agreed to complete field sobriety tests and failed all the categories, the sheriff’s office said.
She was arrested for physical control and booked into the Pierce County Jail.
The same woman was arrested again three days later after a crash that happened on Nov. 15.
The Fircrest Police Department said she allegedly hit a power box and knocked down a power pole at 44th Street West and Alameda Avenue.
Whippet canisters were spread throughout her car.
The woman’s car was destroyed in the crash.
She was booked back into the Pierce County Jail on suspicion of DUI and first-degree malicious mischief for damaging the utility equipment.
On Nov. 20, another caller reported that a woman was allegedly slumped over in her car and had nitrous canisters all over the inside of her vehicle.
Deputies were able to stop the woman before she could pull out of the parking lot, and said they had enough probable cause to charge her with a third DUI.
One of the deputies who was involved with the Nov. 20 arrest was also present a week earlier for a previous arrest.
The sheriff’s office contacted the University Place City Attorney’s Office in hopes that the woman would be held in jail longer, because she was able to bail out quickly after each arrest.
On Nov. 23, the deputies learned that the woman was involved in another crash in Tacoma.
Investigators said she allegedly hit a parked car in a neighborhood and pushed that car into another vehicle.
The woman’s car was totaled again.
The sheriff’s office said the prosecutors had issued two $50,000 DUI warrants and said she was a “high-risk danger to the community.”
On Nov. 26, around 7:30 a.m., the woman was arrested in her home by deputies on her warrants to ensure that she could not continue to drive.
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