Drunken Lakeland Man Arrested for Wading in the Flood Waters of the St. Croix

High flood water and a barricaded area of with signs reading “No one beyond this point by police order” reportedly proved to be an irresistible dare for a drunken 21-year-old Lakeland man early Sunday morning.

At about 3:04 a.m. Sunday, Stillwater police were called a report of a person in the water just north of the Lift Bridge. When police arrived, officers saw a man standing in the water about waist-deep near the Gazebo.

Police approached the 21-year-old man and officers told him to exit the water.

The man responded with a “blank stare,” according to the report, and appeared to be “heavily intoxicated” and “completely wet from head to toe.”

The man eventually exited the water and when police asked what he was doing, he didn’t answer, the report states. When police asked him his name, again, the man didn’t answer.

A preliminary breath test resulted in a .197 reading on a “very weak sample,” the report states. The man reportedly “could not speak due to his extreme intoxication.”

The man was booked into jail and issued a ticket for being in the park after hours and trespassing. He was then released to a “responsible party.”