Police: Drunk Man Took Tractor, Car On Wild Ride

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- A man who decided to tow his wrecked car on its top behind a farm tractor faces charges after running both vehicles into a creek while drunk early Friday morning, Indiana State Police said.

Troopers were called to Bluejay Road, near Eppert Road in northeastern Vigo County, just before 7 a.m.

Officers found a large farm tractor and car had plunged over the west side of a bridge near the intersection, but the tractor's driver was nowhere to be found.

Master Trooper Todd Miles said officers received a tip that the driver was hiding at a farmhouse nearby.

Kevin Michael Whitesell, 31, of Terre Haute, was taken into custody at the farmhouse. He was held Friday on charges of driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a crash.

Miles said that Whitesell had wrecked his car at about 5 a.m. and decided to walk to the farmhouse, about two miles away, to get a four-wheel tractor in an attempt to haul the car away.

"Whitesell then … hooked the overturned car to the tractor and began dragging the car on its top eastbound on Bluejay," Miles said in a news release from ISP.

Police said Whitesell lost control of the tractor on the bridge, pushing both vehicles into Otter Creek.

Whitesell had taken the tractor from Plant Farms, where he worked, ISP said, but didn't tell his employer that he had taken it.

Damage to the tractor was estimated at $150,000 and as much as $20,000 in damage was done to the bridge.