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Attempts To Beat Breathalyzer Tests (Successes & Failures)

A

Anonymous

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Did anyone else receive one of those scanned newspaper clippings by email. It was something about a guy that ate his underpants in order to avoid failing a breathalyzer.
No, I don't know either, but a Google merely turns up German erotic wrestling, so if anyone can provide details do let us know.
About the clipping, not the wrestling.
 
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Just to assure DD that I also vaguely remember the underpant-eating
story. About four years ago? :confused:
 
It was a while ago, James, then I got it again fairly recently though threw it out as I'd seen it before. Then I notice this thread...

Kudos to lopaka for tracking down the details - the chappie in question is one David Zurfluh, whose odd tale can be found here [1] amongst many other places. Snopes also mentions it here in its treatment of myths about fooling breathalyzers, so this lends it some credence.
Not one of our sordid collective imaginings then :)

[edit]Zurfluh is quoted as 28 years old in other sources, rather than 18 as in the above link. Not that it matters.... [/edit]

[1] Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030216173642/http://www.dumbcrooks.com/September6.html
 
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Mon 16 Feb 2004
3:13pm (UK)

Experts Condemn New Craze for 'Snorting' Alcohol
By Sarah Cade, PA News

A new craze for inhaling alcohol was today attacked by medical experts as a potential danger that could cause brain damage.

Drinks including vodka and absinthe can be “snorted” into the nose or inhaled into the mouth through a tube using a new device known as an Alcohol Without Liquid (AWOL) vaporiser. ...

Professor Oliver James, head of clinical medical sciences at Newcastle University, said: “By snorting the alcohol it can go directly into the brain without being filtered by the liver.

“What is getting into your brain could be the equivalent of many times more than by drinking it.

“This will not only make you very drunk very quickly but is also likely to increase the risk of direct alcohol damage to the brain. This could do irreversible damage to nerves, lead to swelling and possibly lead to dementia in the long term.”

He added that people may also be able to inhale alcohol for 20 minutes, get drunk, drive and still be able to pass a police breathalyser test as alcohol levels in the blood remained very low.

The Automobile Association said Awol would have to be treated like drugs and be subject to rules making it illegal to drive with impaired abilities.

Andrew Howard, head of road safety at the AA Motoring Trust, said: “The law doesn’t just say you must not be over the legal limit, it says you must not drive when you are impaired.” ...

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2538295

I snorted quite a bit of blue label vodka over a decade ago and I'm
 
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Poolicious:

Wed, March 30, 2005

DUI suspect eats feces
By CP

TORONTO -- An accused drunk driver tried but failed to foil a police breathalyzer after stuffing his mouth full of feces. "I don't think alcohol alone would make you do something as disgusting as that," South Simcoe Police Insp. Tom McDonald said.

"I've never heard of anything like this before," said the 28-year police veteran.

Arrested Sunday after his Ford pickup was pulled over on a highway just outside of Barrie, the 59-year-old driver was loaded into a cruiser and taken to a police station for testing.

En route, Sgt. James Buchanan said the prisoner vomited, urinated and defecated in the rear of the car.

After arriving at the station, he said the man grabbed a handful of his own waste "and placed it in his mouth, attempting to trick the breathalyzer machine."

It didn't work, Buchanan said
.

The motorist was charged with impaired driving, plus driving with more than 80 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood in his system.

"This fellow was in dire need of help. It's bizarre, but the effects of alcohol can make people do strange things," McDonald said

The cruiser took two hours to clean and "it's back on the road."

Source (canoe.ca/NewsStand/OttawaSun/News/2005/03/30/976414-sun.html)
Link is dead. No archived version found.
 
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Race relations worker abused Pc

Muzaffar Hussain Chowdhury refused a breathalyser test
A race relations worker who called a policeman a "white pig" has narrowly escaped prison after admitting racial abuse and refusing a breathalyser.
Muzaffar Hussain Chowdhury, 63, who works for the Bridgend Community Cohesion Group, was sentenced to a 12-month community supervision order.

He was also given a five-year driving ban at Bridgend magistrates court.

The court heard how he had abused Pc Scott Howe of South Wales Police who had asked him to take a breath test.

Magistrates were told that there had been a dispute between Chowdhury and a father and daughter following a car accident near the Swan Inn, Porthcawl on 1 September.

'Aggravating'

When police arrived, the court heard they were met with abusive language.

Despite warning him about his language, Pc Howe was repeatedly racially abused by Chowdhury, the court was told.

Prosecuting solicitor David Roberts said: "There is an aggravating feature to this matter.

"The reason being is that Mr Chowdhury is a race relations officer for Bridgend Community Cohesion Group.

"Clearly he is a spokesman for racial issues in this area," Mr Roberts added.

"Quite frankly the behaviour is disgusting and language like that shouldn't be used."

Regret

But defence, solicitor Ciaran Gould said: "He (Chowdhury) is of Pakistani origin and knows what it is like to be abused.

"He has been beaten up in the past and that is why he finds it hard to accept he said those things.

"This was not an attempt to get out of a drink driving offence as there is no evidence to say that he had been drinking before the incident with the cars occurred.

"He believed because he had been drinking since the accident and had not been in the car, he thought he did not have to provide a sample."

Ms Gould added Chowdhury regretted the incident.

District Judge Anthony Smith said Chowdhury's comments had been disgusting and he had thought about sending him to prison.

Chowdhury, who had been convicted in 1986 for actual bodily harm and assaulting a police officer, also had convictions for drink driving.

He also received a caution in July 2003 for a public order offence.

On top of his driving ban and the community supervision order, Chowdhury must also pay £100 towards prosecution costs and complete a drink-impaired drivers' programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wale ... 160201.stm
 
The cars used in Sweden by the authorities has a built in breathalyzer, that you need to use to start the car. However the people who work at asylum centers or similar will now get a panic button installed, to bypass the breathalyzer, in case of a quick getaway. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

http://teknikensvarld.se/migrationsverket-tvingas-asidosatta-alkolas-310618/
 
I'm old enough to remember the introduction of the breathalyser. Before that, the police couldn't prove how drunk a person was and lots of motorists thought it was their god-given right to drive home as plastered as they wished. Some even claimed that a drop of the good stuff improved their driving!

The breathalyser changed things. Drivers knew they'd be in trouble if they were stopped and breathalysed and found over the limit. It doesn't prevent all drink-driving, as we know, but drivers now know it's both illegal and socially frowned upon. Most try to keep to the limit.

This is because the drivers know they can be caught and their level of intoxication proved, AND they'll be in big trouble. They can lose their licence and incur fines and costs, and pay more for car insurance if they drive again. This has implications for work and family life. Also, they might find their name in the local rag.
 
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Sorry folks it originated on a facebook page labelling itself 'just for fun' according to Snopes.

“JTTOTS is about veterans and active duty military having a place to be themselves. You know act like dicks and look at boobs and cats and stuff.”
 
I'm not sure how much of a criminal this guy is, but the 'dumb' part rings true ... :roll:

Cops: Maine man punches self in face to avoid sobriety test
Police in Maine have accused a man of punching himself in the face three times to avoid a sobriety test.

Police in the town of Belfast say they found 27-year-old Brian Fogg in his car, stuck in a ditch last week.

WGME-TV reports police said when they tried to test for his blood-alcohol level, Fogg punched himself in the face, causing himself to bleed. Police tended to his injuries instead of giving him the test, but later charged him with operating under the influence, falsifying physical evidence and criminal mischief. ...

SOURCE (With Booking Photo!): https://apnews.com/099d5395b86a45d0...-punches-self--in-face-to-avoid-sobriety-test
 
... Snopes also mentions it here in its treatment of myths about fooling breathalyzers, so this lends it some credence. ...
Here's the relevant excerpt from Snopes:

Defeating the Breathalyzer Test

...
Folks have done many strange things over the years in an effort to beat the machine. In a case heard in an Alberta courtroom in March 1985, 28-year-old Dave Zurfluh, who was stopped on suspicion of driving while under the influence, ate his undershorts in the belief they would soak up the excess alcohol in his system. According to Constable Bill Robinson, the arresting officer, he heard “some ripping and tearing” from the back of the cruiser. “I looked in the back and he was tearing pieces of the crotch of his underwear out and stuffing them in his mouth,” Robinson testified.

We’ve no idea if the eating of the shorts was what got him off, but Dave Zurfluh was acquitted of all charges because he’d blown .08 on the breathalyzer, the legal limit.
SOURCE: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/take-my-breath-away/
 
There's an Internet rumor that sucking on a copper coin can defeat a breathalyzer test. It didn't work for this UK man ...
"Don't believe what you read on the internet": Hilarious police warning after drink-driver 'shoves' coins in his mouth to evade breathalyser

Police have issued a hilarious warning after a driver attempted to evade his breathalyser test by 'shoving' coins into his mouth at the side of the road. The driver had been caught driving through a red light on Spa Road in Bolton on Saturday night (August 27).

After being pulled over by traffic police to be questioned and give a breath sample, he proceeded to 'shove a load of coins' into his mouth. Nevertheless, he blew a reading of 65 - with the legal limit in England being 35.

GMP Traffic shared the image of the Golf to their social media pages, as they issued the humorous warning to other road users. "Don't believe what you read on the internet," they said. ...

The theory circulating online, among others, is that sucking on a copper coin can trick a breathalyser by interfering with someone's mouth saliva composition. However, in this instance, it was clearly unsuccessful. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.manchestereveningnews.c...ster-news/dont-believe-what-you-read-24877861
 
:rofl:

maximus otter
Some years ago, (maybe as many as 15 years) Mrs DT and I were home quite late at night near Christmas time, when we noticed blue flashing lights in the road just outside of our house. Looked out of the window and saw that the police had pulled over a car and were gesticulating for the driver to get out.

The driver did get out, but immediately fell over, and it was obvious how intoxicated the guy was.

Eventually the two officers managed to get the driver to stand up straight, where he was then breathalysed. I said to Mrs DT “that bloody idiots well nicked”, but no, after he was breathalysed, he was allowed to continue on his way. The breathalyser was obviously faulty, but why did this not occur to the two officers involved and why not call for another police car who would have showed up with a breathalyser that did work.

We were both quite shocked. @maximus otter could you perhaps throw any light on this at all..?
 
Some years ago, (maybe as many as 15 years) Mrs DT and I were home quite late at night near Christmas time, when we noticed blue flashing lights in the road just outside of our house. Looked out of the window and saw that the police had pulled over a car and were gesticulating for the driver to get out.

The driver did get out, but immediately fell over, and it was obvious how intoxicated the guy was.

Eventually the two officers managed to get the driver to stand up straight, where he was then breathalysed. I said to Mrs DT “that bloody idiots well nicked”, but no, after he was breathalysed, he was allowed to continue on his way. The breathalyser was obviously faulty, but why did this not occur to the two officers involved and why not call for another police car who would have showed up with a breathalyser that did work.

We were both quite shocked. @maximus otter could you perhaps throw any light on this at all..?

Difficult to comment on an anecdotal case like this, really. lt’s not beyond possibility that he was stone-cold sober, or only mildly impaired, fell over for a non-alcohol-related reason, then passed the test.

Anyway, there are three options:

a) Took the test and failed: Arrest.

b) Took the test and passed: Sent on his way, with words of advice if the smell of drink had been detected. “You might test positive if checked again in 15 minutes or a couple of miles up the road…”

c) Fail to complete, or refuse, the test: Arrest.

Even if the breathalyser obviously malfunctioned before the test, a police officer is entitled to give evidence of opinion in court as to whether someone is drunk. (This is the only area where that is possible: Horses for courses…)

If l pulled someone over and his breath turned my tunic buttons green, even if l retrieved my breathalyser and saw that it had been trodden on (for example) and was evidently U/S, l would be entitled to arrest him on sus of drink-driving. l would then take him back to the factory where the proper evidential breath-testing machine is situated. (In my day the Lion Intoximeter 3000). This test result is the one the police take to court, not the street one.

What you saw? Short answer: :dunno:

maximus otter
 
Some years ago, (maybe as many as 15 years) Mrs DT and I were home quite late at night near Christmas time, when we noticed blue flashing lights in the road just outside of our house. Looked out of the window and saw that the police had pulled over a car and were gesticulating for the driver to get out.

The driver did get out, but immediately fell over, and it was obvious how intoxicated the guy was.

Eventually the two officers managed to get the driver to stand up straight, where he was then breathalysed. I said to Mrs DT “that bloody idiots well nicked”, but no, after he was breathalysed, he was allowed to continue on his way. The breathalyser was obviously faulty, but why did this not occur to the two officers involved and why not call for another police car who would have showed up with a breathalyser that did work.

We were both quite shocked. @maximus otter could you perhaps throw any light on this at all..?
The police sometimes try to catch drink-drivers out by watching people leave pubs.
A friend of mine was picked up after he reeled out of the Captain, staggered to his car and drove off.
He was stopped down the road and breathalysed with a negative result. He didn't drink and his unusual gait was down to a joint condition.
Brian loved telling this story. :chuckle:
 
The police sometimes try to catch drink-drivers out by watching people leave pubs.
A friend of mine was picked up after he reeled out of the Captain, staggered to his car and drove off.
He was stopped down the road and breathalysed with a negative result. He didn't drink and his unusual gait was down to a joint condition.
Brian loved telling this story. :chuckle:
A bit like the old joke where the police wait outside a pub and while all the people leaving look a little suspect one crawls to his car, has a dozen attempts to get the door open and when everyone else has gone finally manages to get in and drives carefully down the road.

The police swoop, get him out the car and breathalysed. Negative.

"Can't understand it" says the copper, "could have sworn you were over the limit."

"No." says the chap. "I'm the designated decoy"
 
A bit like the old joke where the police wait outside a pub and while all the people leaving look a little suspect one crawls to his car, has a dozen attempts to get the door open and when everyone else has gone finally manages to get in and drives carefully down the road.

The police swoop, get him out the car and breathalysed. Negative.

"Can't understand it" says the copper, "could have sworn you were over the limit."

"No." says the chap. "I'm the designated decoy"
:chuckle:

Can remember a Daily Mirror cartoon strip from around when the breathalyser was introduced, where a driver is stopped by the police and commended for his careful driving.
His response is 'Well, you have to be on the ball when you've had a few!' :bthumbup:
 
The police sometimes try to catch drink-drivers out by watching people leave pubs.
A friend of mine was picked up after he reeled out of the Captain, staggered to his car and drove off.
He was stopped down the road and breathalysed with a negative result. He didn't drink and his unusual gait was down to a joint condition.
Brian loved telling this story. :chuckle:
He couldn’t handle the spliffs..
 
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