Detroit man arrested for jumping a drawbridge, not for driving a Stratus

Doing his best Dukes of Hazzard impression—or was it his best Blues Brothers impression?—a Detroit man jumped his car over a rising drawbridge on the city’s west side earlier this week, miraculously reaching the other side unhurt and without plunging into the Rouge River.

He couldn’t elude police, however.

Surprised drawbridge operator Andre Locke tells WDIV-TV that he lowered the emergency gate as the white Dodge Stratus approached. “I looked, I said, ‘No he ain’t.’ Over he went, blew out all four of his tires, and then he crashed into the other gate. That’s a first for me.”

The 26-year-old Allen Park man was arrested—but no, not for driving a Stratus. According to multiple media reports, he is expected to be charged with malicious destruction of property of more than $1000.

When describing the incident over the radio, police actually referred to The Dukes of Hazzard, whose main characters drove a 1969 Dodge Charger. The cops did not, however, refer to the Stratus driver as a “good ol’ boy, never meanin’ no harm.”

Locke likens the jump of the Fort Street bridge to The Blues Brothers’ Jake and Elwood Blues, who were on “a mission from God” when they hurdled a Chicago drawbridge in a 1974 Dodge Monaco. The Detroit jumper, however, does not claim to be on a similar divine assignment. Nor does he insist, as Will Ferrell so famously shouted in a family argument on Saturday Night Live, “I drive a Dodge Stratus!”

Police say he is suspected of driving under the influence, not from alcohol but from—wait for it—“whippits.” What’s a whippit? It’s a steel cartridge filled with nitrous oxide that’s used in a whipped cream dispenser. (Insert your own joke here.)

To think the Duke boys were just high on life … and drove a better Dodge, too.