--- title: DUI Suspect Claimed Dog Was Driving Car description: A man accused of leading police on a high speed chase allegedly told officers that his dog was the one driving the car. canonical: https://time.com/4070509/dui-suspect-dog/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-12T21:26:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:25:54.830Z og:title: DUI Suspect Told Police His Dog Was Driving The Car og:description: There was no dog seen in the car og:url: https://time.com/4070509/dui-suspect-dog/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c68ecbecc097fe1/698867f22dce010ef09e5fa2/dog-in-car.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5616 og:image:height: 3159 og:image:alt: Dog in Car og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: DUI Suspect Told Police His Dog Was Driving The Car twitter:description: There was no dog seen in the car twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c68ecbecc097fe1/698867f22dce010ef09e5fa2/dog-in-car.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # DUI Suspect Told Police His Dog Was Driving The Car > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 12, 2015 9:26 PM UTC  pet dog in a car pet dog in a car Oli Kellett—Getty Images  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Oct 12, 2015 9:26 PM UTC A man accused of leading police on a high-speed chase in Manatee County, Fla., allegedly told officers that his dog was the one driving the car, according to [KTLA 5](http://ktla.com/2015/10/11/my-dog-was-driving-that-car-dui-suspect-reportedly-tells-florida-deputies/). Reliford Cooper III, 26, was arrested on Wednesday night on suspicion of driving while intoxicated with damage to a person or property. Police spotted Cooper speeding and driving erratically around 7:45 p.m. He allegedly fled, ran a stop sign and drove through two ditches before crashing into a house. The DUI suspect then ran to a church where he hid in the bathroom. Churchgoers forced the man outside where he was taken into custody, authorities report. “My dog was driving that car. I ran because I wanted to. You ain’t gonna find no drugs or guns on me,” Cooper allegedly told a deputy before starting to throw up. Dave Bristow, a spokesman with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, told [The Huffington Post](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reliford-cooper-dog-driving-car%5F561bbe80e4b0e66ad4c87505) that there was no dog seen in Cooper’s car. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4070509/dui-suspect-dog/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4070509/dui-suspect-dog/"},"headline":"DUI Suspect Told Police His Dog Was Driving The Car","datePublished":"2015-10-12T21:26:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:25:54.830Z","description":"There was no dog seen in the car","url":"https://time.com/4070509/dui-suspect-dog/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Crime","animals","Dogs","police","dui","Illegal","Florida","Dog","Laws","Weird News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c68ecbecc097fe1/698867f22dce010ef09e5fa2/dog-in-car.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0c68ecbecc097fe1/698867f22dce010ef09e5fa2/dog-in-car.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Dog in Car","caption":"Dog in Car","creditText":"Oli Kellett—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4070509/dui-suspect-dog/","name":"DUI Suspect Told Police His Dog Was Driving The Car"}}]}] ```