A Villager in a vehicle that was missing a front tire was nabbed after leaving the scene of a crash.
Sumter County sheriff’s deputies were called shortly before 7 p.m. Monday to Buena Vista Boulevard and County Road 472, where a vehicle struck a curb and a light pole, according to an arrest report. A bulletin went out to deputies about the silver Toyota SUV that left the scene of the crash. A deputy spotted the vehicle at Buena Vista Boulevard near El Camino Real. The vehicle was “driving slowly” and “hugging the curb” in the roundabout.
The driver was identified as 69-year-old Paula Shreve, of the Village of Poinciana.
“She was unaware that she had been involved in a vehicle crash, despite the fact that the car was missing its left front tire and she was driving on the rim,” the deputy wrote in the arrest report.
The Ottawa, Canada native told the deputy she had come from a restaurant where she had “a couple drinks.” She was still in her vehicle and attempted to drive away until she was told not to leave.
A witness who saw the accident followed Shreve’s vehicle and told deputies that the left front of Shreve’s SUV “began to smoke and then the tire came off the rim.”
She struggled through field sobriety exercises and provided breath samples that registered .153 and .149 blood alcohol content.
She was arrested on charges of driving under the influence and hit and run. She was booked at the Sumter County Detention Center on $1,500 bond.
