An 80-year-old teetotaller who has never had alcohol in his life had a nightmare experience when two police officers from Kwaggasfontein north of Pretoria arrested him for driving under the influence, Beeld newspaper reported.
Fanie Otto, of Vrede, also north of Pretoria, walks very slowly, but the officers apparently marched him from counter to counter, pistol to his back, at the police station to which he was taken, the newspaper report.
Otto’s tearful wife, Kriekie, was quoted as saying:
”He’s a teetotaller. We’ve been married for 25 years, and he doesn’t even have communion wine!”
The hard of hearing Otto, who helps his son with his swimming-pool business, said his nightmare evening started when he got lost in his bakkie after dropping off workers.
”I probably took a wrong turn somewhere and asked directions from at least two petrol stations.
”Eventually, I ended up on Kwaggasfontein’s dirt roads. Then the police car stopped in front of me. I was so glad because I thought they’d show me to the highway.”
Otto, a fluent Zulu speaker, said he immediately thanked the officers and said he was glad to see them because he was lost.
”But then they told me to get out.
”They unlocked the police van and said I should get in because I was under the influence of alcohol.
”There wasn’t even a cushion and I had to hang on for dear life as they sped through potholes and over bumps.”
Otto tried in vain to explain that he did not drink at all, but they still had some blood samples taken at KwaMhlanga Hospital, the news report said.
His wife said she could not stop crying when her husband eventually called her. He had been detained at the police station for the whole of Tuesday evening without food.
”The next morning in court in Kwaggasfontein, two officers had to help him up the steps — he was that tired.”
While at the court building, ”…a man poked his head out through a door and said we could go home because the case had been thrown out.
”Fanie never appeared [in court],” Mrs Otto was quoted as saying.
The court official did not want to hand Mrs Otto any documents because they were ”government property”. Police apparently said the results of the blood tests would be available only in three months.
Kwaggasfontein police were silent when approached for comment, said the newspaper. – Sapa