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$1,000 and we'll just forget about it?

 

When police inspected a suspicious car parked with the motor running in the lot at The Lodge at Sonoma, they discovered an out-of-town couple sound asleep inside. The man was fully clothed and his girlfriend was sleeping in her underwear when a police officer woke them up, both, it turned out, extremely intoxicated.

Too intoxicated, apparently, to make it to the nearby room they had booked at The Lodge. And because the motor of the Jeep they were sleeping in was running, the driver was charged of driving under the influence.

The driver refused to submit to any sobriety tests or provide a breath or blood sample to test his blood alcohol level, so the officer placed him under arrest for DUI.

That didn't sit well with 27-year-old Adam Hershberger of Carmel, Ind., who, according to the police report, proposed to the officer an alternative outcome. Hershberger allegedly told the officer he would pay him $1,000 if he would let him return to his hotel room, "and forget this ever happened."

When the officer continued to transport Hershberger to the county jail, he raised the ante. "How much do you get paid per arrest?" he reportedly asked the officer. "A thousand dollars? I'll give you $2,000 to let me out."

That didn't work either, Hershberger was booked into the county jail, charged with DUI and felony bribery of a police officer and a Wine Country holiday came to a presumed unhappy end.

In other incidents reported by local law enforcement:

Friday, Aug. 26:

11:56 p.m. - Not a Giants prospect. A 26-year-old transient exited the Town Square bar with a pint glass and threw it at a group of people assembled across the street. The man's aim was mercifully poor and the glass shattered harmlessly without hurting anyone. When a police officer arrived, the man took refuge back inside the bar, and hid in the men's room where he tried to take off the black hoodie sweatshirt he was wearing, presumably to change his appearance. But the officer found him in the bathroom, highly intoxicated and, after a brief resistance, placed the man in handcuffs and under arrest. Asked why he threw the glass at the group of people, the man explained, "I was just throwing a drink to my friend and he missed." He was booked into the county jail for public intoxication and violation of probation.

Saturday, Aug. 27:

2:21 p.m. - Two for the price of one? An 18-year-old Sonoma man went vitamin shopping at Sonoma Market, put one $25.79 bottle of Formula W Multivitamins in his pocket, took a second bottle to the check-out counter, paid for it and left. When the store's security guard, who had witnessed the theft, followed the man outside, the man took off running. The security guard gave chase until a citizen asked if he needed help. The security guard affirmed that he did, the citizen offered a ride in his car, and the two quickly caught up with the fleeing thief who gave up his attempted escape.

He was charged with petty theft.

Sunday, Aug. 28:

12:07 a.m. - Wrong place to pee. A 24-year-old man, showing no signs of inebriation, stepped out the front door of Steiner's Tavern, walked into the adjacent doorway of the Charles Creek Winery tasting room, and began urinating on the front door. A police officer on foot patrol in the Plaza, observed the man relieving himself and promptly intervened. The man, who apparently had a problem with tavern's bathroom, was cited for urinating in public and told to move along.

3:19 p.m. - Let me see your soles. Police received a report from the Harvest Moon Café that sometime during the previous night someone wearing a shoe with a checkered pattern kicked the gate of the fence behind the building, causing an estimated $200 damage. A checkered-pattern footprint was found on the fence.

Tuesday, Aug. 30:

10:48 p.m. - Talking under the influence. When police spotted a 28-year-old Boyes Hot Springs woman talking on her cell phone as she drove her Toyota Highlander on Fifth Street West near West Spain, they pulled her over and discovered that the cell phone transgression was not her only moving violation. Detecting symptoms of alcohol consumption, an officer asked how much she had had to drink. The answer - two margaritas - didn't quite explain the .21 BAC she registered on the police station's calibrated, digital breath analyzer. She was cited for DUI and the cell phone violation and was released to the custody of her father.

Wednesday, Aug. 31:

1:53 p.m. - Pot legal, booze not so. Sonoma police received a call that someone was smoking marijuana in the Plaza. When they went to investigate, they discovered one of the town's most prominent frequent flyers ensconced there. He did indeed have marijuana on his person - although he denied smoking it there - along with a medical marijuana card, which shielded him from a citation. What he also had was a detectable odor of alcohol which, when tested, translated into a .04 BAC and put him in violation of his probation terms, which forbade consumption of any intoxicants. He was cited for a probation violation and released.

Thursday, Sept. 1:

8:54 a.m. - Unlocked and left behind. The mother of a Prestwood School student told police her son's unlocked bike, left overnight in the school bike rack, was stolen when her son returned to school that morning. She added that she had picked her son up at school the day before after he rode the bike to school and had intended to return for the bike later in the afternoon, but forgot. The 2008 Hoffman BMX bike was valued at $500.