A clown fleeing scene of an accident after hitting a parked car was no laughing matter to Wheeling, West Virginia, police.
Police there arrested Patricia Ingalls in full clown getup at a child’s birthday party on a Friday afternoon in May after she allegedly hit a parked car earlier in the day and left the scene, WTOV-TV Channel 9 reported. Her blood-alcohol content at the time of her arrest was .252, more than triple the legal limit.
“I’m not allowed to drink in costume and I should have never went (to the party) because I was too upset,” Ingalls, whose mug shot shows her face painted white with bright-red cheeks, told Channel 9.
Ingalls claims she didn’t drink and drive. Instead, the clown said she began drinking after the accident because she was upset, but “not while I was driving.” Not wanting to disappoint the children, Ingalls then made her way to her birthday party gig.
The low point of her arrest, she said, was seeing the sad faces of the kids she had to leave behind.
“They were all hanging on me and saying, ‘Don’t take the clown,’” Ingalls recalled.
Click HERE to see Channel 9’s video interview with Ingalls.
