THE MIKIVERSE

For sale: hotted-up chair, one driver only

• From:Reuters
• Sat Oct 24 11:27:00 EST 2009

A pimped-up lounge chair used in a drink-driving incident will go under the hammer / AFP Source: AFPA SMALL town police department in Minnesota will put a motorised lounge chair up for auction next week after it was seized in a drunk driving incident.

The black and blue leather lounge chair comes complete with stereo, footrest, cupholders, headlights, a nitrous oxide power boost system, drag racing-style steering wheel and a parachute.
Built on top of a riding lawnmower engine, the chair is decorated with stickers proclaiming "hell yeah it's fast" and "I smoked your (expletive)," and can get up to speeds of around 24km per hour.

It was seized on August 31 last year after Dennis LeRoy Anderson, 62, smashed it into a parked car on his way back from a local bar in Proctor, Minnesota.

Anderson told police the only reason he hit the car was because a girl jumped up on the chair.

"We cannot confirm or deny the story," police chief Walter Wobig told Agence France-Presse.

"The bottom line is it doesn't get him off driving while intoxicated."

Anderson, who Wobig called "a very nice guy," had a blood alcohol level of 0.29 - more than three times the legal limit. And it wasn't his first drunk driving arrest.

State law allows police to seize vehicles in drunk driving cases and either use them for official use or sell them once a conviction is obtained.

Wobig, who had seen Anderson driving the chair around town for a year or two prior to his arrest, decided it was only fair to treat the chair the same way he would treat a Corvette.

So he stuck it in his garage while Anderson's case made its way through the courts.

Anderson pleaded guilty on Monday and the paperwork to transfer ownership to the police department should be completed soon, Wobig said.

It will hit eBay once Wobig can post a notice in Proctor's weekly paper, which comes out on Wednesday.

He's not going to set a reserve price and won't even hazard a guess at what the chair will bring in for his department.