You ever try towing a fifth wheel with an Infiniti? One drunk driver did, Puyallup police say

The 26-year-old Burien man’s Infiniti sports car was wedged under the hitch of a fifth-wheel trailer Saturday night.

He tried to pull out a few times, Puyallup police said, dragging the trailer into an adjacent RV.

Hopelessly stuck, he walked away.

Witnesses pointed him out nearby, and officers detained him in the parking lot.

“You can’t charge me,” the man told officers, reeking of alcohol. “I’m drunk.”

He had plenty of time to sober up in the Pierce County Jail before being charged Monday in Superior Court. He faces charges of driving under the influence, third-degree assault, felony harassment, hit-and-run, driving without a license and resisting arrest.

He was released on his own recognizance.

According to charging documents:

Police were dispatched late Saturday to a parking lot in the 300 block of 27th Street Northeast after a report that a driver had hit a travel trailer before walking away.

Officers arrived to find the sports car wedged under the hitch of the fifth-wheel trailer, which was leaning against an RV. The car’s roof was heavily damaged from the driver apparently trying to go back and forth until the car could be worked free.

Two people were inside the RV when it was hit by the trailer.

Witnesses told police the driver had been speeding through the parking lot when he crashed into the trailer, then tried to pull away before giving up and leaving. They pointed him out across the parking lot, where he was arrested.

His fellow passengers said a man whose name they didn’t know was driving the car. The Burien man had been in the back seat, asleep, they said. And besides, a family member said, he didn’t know how to drive.

The Burien man smelled of booze. His eyes were glassed over and red. He slurred his words.

That didn’t stop him from haranguing the officers, spouting racist comments and swear words toward them before saying he couldn’t be charged while drunk.

The man was acting erratic, so he was placed in restraints. He spit on an officer, then threatened to decapitate another “next week.”

He was taken to an area hospital for a blood draw before being booked into jail.

Firefighters had to cut the roof off of the car before it could be impounded.

This story was originally published July 31, 2018 at 11:15 AM.