Anchorage police commended three Anchorage area motorists that were instrumental in apprehending a  drunk driver with warrants on Wednesday morning.

The  first call reporting a possible drunk driver went in to the department at 2:34 am on Wednesday. The caller reported that a man was idling in the southbound lanes of the New Seward Highway slumped over his steering wheel.

But, while the caller was still on the phone with police, the suspected drunk driver, later identified as 53-year-old Christopher D. Beck, woke up and continued to drive down the highway. The caller continued to follow the vehicle, providing details such as license plate numbers to the police. The caller followed until the vehicle pulled off in a direction that the driver was not headed.

Patrol vehicles searched the area to no avail. But, approximately 10 minutes later, another caller contacted APD and reported a blue Ford pickup traveling outbound on the Glenn Highway near Airport Heights. The caller reported that the driver may be impaired, and provided the plate number, which matched the plate of the previous report. The caller lost sight of the vehicle near the  Bragaw exit.

Police again searched the area without success.

At 2:56 am, Dispatch received a third call reporting the vehicle. This time, the caller reported that a man in a truck was passed out in the middle of the intersection of the Old Glenn Highway and Monte Road in Eagle River. Police rushed to the location, arriving there in minutes, but, when they arrived, the vehicle was again gone.

Using the address on the vehicle’s registration, police traveled to the 9100-block of West Parkview Terrace. As they were arriving at that location, they saw the sought-after vehicle and driver pull up to the address. Police pulled in behind and activated their lights.[xyz-ihs snippet=”adsense-body-ad”]When Beck was exiting his vehicle, the officer saw that Beck showed signs of intoxication  including poor balance. Beck refused to answer any questions and would not perform standardized field sobriety tests. He was placed under arrest for DUI and transported to the Anchorage Jail.

As the booking process was being initiated, the arresting officer seated Beck into a chair. As the officer turned away to place his computer on the table, Beck leaned over, falling off of the chair, and hitting his head on a cabinet near him. He  was taken to the hospital, checked out, and with a search warrant, a blood sample was collected.

A further check of Beck’s background by APD would find that Beck was in violation of his conditions of release and also had an active warrant for failure to appear on a previous DUI charge.

Beck was transported back to the Anchorage Jail where he was remanded.

  Anchorage, arrest, christopher beck, dui, eagle river, hospital