N.Y. Trooper Has Case of DWI Deja Vu

Trooper Merle Schreckengost may have been a bit shocked when he had to swerve to avoid a truck that backed out of a driveway into the path of his State Police patrol car Monday evening.

The trooper got a bigger shock when the other driver got out of his vehicle on Buffalo Street in East Aurora.

It was the same man he had arrested for driving while intoxicated just six days earlier.

"As soon as he got out of the truck, I saw he was wearing the same clothes he was wearing six days before," said Schreckengost, an almost 17-year State Police veteran. "I looked at him, remembered him and said, 'Jason, what are you doing?'"

Schreckengost said he then smelled an alcoholic beveragecq on the driver, who was identified as Jason R. Fuss, 30, of Delevan.

"Have you been drinking again?" the trooper asked him.

"Yes," Fuss replied, according to the trooper. "You got me. Just arrest me. You don't need to go through the tests again."

Schreckengost followed procedure, though, administering the roadside tests before arresting Fuss for DWI. A breath test later revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.22 percent, according to police reports.

The earlier incident happened Feb. 22, when Schreckengost stopped Fuss for speeding on Route 16 in the Town of Holland. The driver, accused of registering a 0.10 percent blood-alcohol level that day, was charged with DWI and speeding.

So this wasn't a case of an officer arresting the same person while patrolling the same small beat. One case occurred in East Aurora, the other about 12 miles away, in Holland, near the Sardinia line.

"It's two different towns," Schreckengost said. "I don't know how that ever happened. It's quite a coincidence."

While the trooper remembered the driver, that familiarity apparently went both ways.

"I'm just happy it's you," Schreckengost recalled Fuss telling him Monday evening. "I can talk to you."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service