Police say a Falmouth man who was intoxicated after a night of drinking in the Old Port was temporarily taken into custody early Saturday after he took the wrong car service and tried to enter a Cape Elizabeth residence he believed was his home.
The mishap began when the man mistakenly got into a Lyft car summoned by a Cape Elizabeth man who lived at the house next door to where the incident occurred, Cape Elizabeth Police Chief Paul Fenton said.
The Lyft driver dropped the Falmouth man off at a home in the Stonegate neighborhood of Cape Elizabeth around 1:15 a.m. Saturday.
When he got out of the car, he staggered toward a nearby home and tried to open the locked front door and garage door, Fenton said. He was unable to gain entrance and the commotion he made prompted the homeowner to notify police that someone was trying to break in to the residence.
Sgt. Eric Fay and Officer Benjamin Davis responded to the report of a burglary in progress.
“Subject was located and extremely intoxicated and believed he was in Falmouth,” Davis wrote in the police department’s public information log. “We were able to learn that he had come from the Old Port and got into the wrong Lyft and passed out and got dropped off at the wrong location.”
Fenton explained on Tuesday that the officers were able to clear up some of the confusion after another Lyft driver pulled into the next-door neighbor’s driveway around the same time the officers were interviewing the intoxicated man – described by Fenton as being in his early 20s.
Another young man emerged from the second Lyft vehicle and told police that someone mistakenly took his Lyft ride, which he contacted in the Old Port. Officers Fay and Davis ended up handcuffing the confused man and taking him back to the police station, where he was allowed to sober up. They eventually made arrangements with another Lyft driver to have him transported to his home in Falmouth. He will not face any charges.
“The homeowner was fine with it,” Fenton said. “He did not want to press charges.”
The intoxicated man wasn’t identified because he wasn’t charged with a crime, the chief said.
“He realized what happened and he was very apologetic,” Fenton said.
Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
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