A woman was determined to keep driving forward overnight and, according to investigators, not a stranger’s yard, some small trees, brush, nor a fence could stop her. Only after dunking her car into a swimming pool did the woman stop.
“She was out there determined to go where she was going.”
Joel Barnett says he and his wife were relaxing on their patio along the 700 block of Mt. Airy Avenue in the West My. Airy section of Philadelphia around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday when they saw headlights come up their neighbor’s driveway.
“(She) came up our neighbor’s driveway and kind of drove around on our neighbor’s lawn for a while, burst through the fence and into the pool,” Barnett told NBC10.
The 34-year-old female driver splashed her white 2006 Saturn Vue into the pool. On Thursday police identified her as Jennifer Garcia of the 6600 block of Lincoln Drive.
“The vehicle was completely underwater in the deep end, which is about 8 feet of water,” said Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small.
“The (driver) was able to get out of the vehicle, swim out and stand on top of the car,” Small said.
Barnett said he helped Garcia out of the pool as his wife called police.
“When she came out, she was so out of it that she didn’t realize she had driven her car in the water, said Barnett. "She was out there like, ‘why is my car in the water?’”
On Thursday, police charged Garcia with DUI.
“She was clearly intoxicated,” Small said. “She had slurred speech, she looked intoxicated, she smelled of alcohol, so she was placed under arrest.”
Garcia was treated for some minor bruises on her legs before being taken to the police station to be booked on DUI and other charges.
No one else was hurt.
Like a scene out of the movie Project X, a tow company had to retrieve the vehicle from the pool. It took nearly two hours to get the SUV out of the water.
For Barnett, he had a sleepless night trying to figure out what happened.
“It’s pretty unbelievable I tell you. We’re still trying to figure it out.”
Photo Credit: NBC10