A Massillon police officer pulling over a driver suspected of drunken driving got quite a surprise when he realized the man was dressed as a clown.
David Simon, 55, was the man behind the wheel of the pickup truck when an officer made a traffic stop on Lincoln Way on Dec. 18. And when he stepped out of the truck, he appeared to be drunk and wearing a clown costume, complete with a red wig or hat and a tail on the back of it.
"The reason I pulled you over, you hit the curb twice, okay?" the officer says in the dash cam video.
"I know. I know I did. I'm sorry," said Simon.
"How many have you had to drink?" the officer asked.
"I had quite a bit," Simon said.
Sgt. Brian Muntean said Simon failed field sobriety tests in his clown get-up and was arrested for OVI.
"You see a lot of weird things on midnights but it's kind of weird when you stop somebody and they're in a clown suit," he said.
Sgt. Muntean added that Simon blew a .180, which is classified under Ohio law as a Super OVI.
Simon told the officer he was coming from a Christmas party.
Police believe the clown costume was part of the show.
"I believe he was working some type of party and apparently sometime in there, started to party himself," said Sgt. Muntean.
Despite the comedic look of the clown costume, police were not laughing, especially since Simon is a repeat offender.
"This was not this guy's first rodeo so to say, okay. He had two prior OVI convictions already so this would be his third offense," said Sgt. Muntean.
