Published: October 27, 2009 12:14 am      

TOWN OF TONAWANDA: Costumed man drives into river

TOWN OF TONAWANDA — A man dressed in a cow suit was charged with driving while intoxicated Sunday after driving his car into the Niagara River.

Town of Tonawanda police were called to the water treatment plant at 218 Aqua Lane for a call of a person in a cow suit showing up, asking for help and then running away just after 3 a.m. When officers arrived, they found Jeffrey S. Barber walking along the south fence of the plant and asked him to come over to the car. His cow suit was noticeably soaked with water from the chest down.

When asked what happened, Barber said, “I just drove my car into the water,” according to reports.

Barber went on to say he had been driving back to his home in Hamburg from a party in the town when his GPS device told him to take a right to get onto the 190. He took a hard right at that time, leading him down Aqua Lane, off the small boat docks and into the Niagara River.

The car’s engine and electrical system stopped working, so Barber said he “smashed the window with his left palm like he saw how to do on TV.”

He then climbed out, cutting his left hand and getting shards of glass into the left front pocket of his coat. After making his way to the water buildings — which he mistook for the University at Buffalo campus — Barber asked for help through the building’s public speaker.

Once officers made sure Barber was safe, they went to locate his car to make sure there were no passengers. Barber said he was riding alone, but when officers smelled the odor of alcohol on his breath, they wanted to make sure. To their surprise, the car was nowhere to be found.

The Sheridan Park fire company responded with a ladder truck to hoist a light and search for the vehicle through the water, but had no luck either. A worker at the water plant tried to review the tape from a surveillance camera to see what happened to the car, but accidentally erased the tape in the process. Police were also unable to get the address for the party from Barber since it was in the GPS system still located in the car. Barber’s cell phone containing all his phone numbers was also soaked and ruined during his escape.

Town police then called the City of Tonawanda police department, which has its own dive team. The team already had a practice scheduled for 8 a.m. Sunday, so they conducted their dive at Aqua Lane Park. The divers located the car 50 feet from the shore and hauled it back to land, locating four whiskey bottles, three beer bottles and the head of the cow costume in the vehicle.

Barber allegedly failed multiple field sobriety tests and a chemical breath test reportedly revealed a 0.20 percent blood alcohol content, leading to an aggravated DWI charge.

Contact reporter Daniel Pye at 693-1000, ext. 158.