With the assistance of several callers on Monday, Anchorage police executed the arrest of a man who went on an intoxicated rampage in a Yellow cab in the Lake Otis area.

The first call into APD was at 1:56 am on Monday morning when they were informed of a Yellow Cab driver “did a U-turn in the middle of Lake Otis, drove up on the sidewalk, and then sped down the roadway.”

Callers continued to phone in while patrol officers responded to the area. One caller reported that the suspect vehicle now had a  blown front tire and had side-swiped several vehicles at Lake Otis and Lore Street.

Police followed the intoxicated driver’s progress as another call went in to dispatch reporting that the driver had run over a stop sign at Lore and Obrien Street.

The final caller reported that the driver, later identified as 62-year-old Richard Galang, had parked the cab and fled on foot on Zion Court. Officers converged on the location and located the now abandoned cab. They observed that the vehicle had leaked fluids that led back to the knocked over stop sign.

A resident at an apartment on O’Brien Street informed officers that they had heard noises behind their building. “Officers headed that direction on foot and could smell a strong odor of alcohol in the area,” AST reported. Commands were given that went unanswered.

Officers soon located the driver laying under a tree and was initially compliant but later refused to take part in standardized field sobriety testing. He also became verbally disruptive when being booked into the Anchorage Jail.

Galang was charged with Operating under the Influence, Refusal to Submit to a Chemical Test, Reckless Endangerment, two counts of Criminal Mischief, two counts of Leaving the Scene of an Accident, and Resisting Arrest.

  crash, drinking, dui, intoxicated, lake otis, reckless, richard galang, yellow cab, zion court