Crime & Safety
Cops: At 3:30 AM, Car Running, Driver Asleep, DUI
The lights were on but the driver wasn't awake inside a vehicle parked at the Goodwives Shopping Center in the wee hours last Sunday, police said.
At 3:30 a.m. it's normal to be sleeping. To be sleeping at 3:30 a.m. in a parking lot, slumped forward behind the wheel while your parked car is running and the lights are on is unusual.
But that's what a police officer found during a security check at the Goodwives Shopping Center parking lot last Sunday, according to Darien police, who gave this further account of the matter:
At first, the running vehicle seemed to be empty, but a closer look revealed the driver, Ted Novak, 23, of Norwalk inside and asleep.
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It wasn't easy for the officer to wake up Novak, and when he did regain consciousness he appeared dazed and groggy.
When Novak unlocked the driver's door, the strong odor of an alcoholic beverage wafted out, and the officer had Novak take field sobriety tests, which he failed.
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Novak, of Scofield Place in Norwalk, was arrested on a charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol and is scheduled to appear March 22 in state Superior Court in Stamford.
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