GLYNN COUNTY, Ga. – A 36-year-old man was arrested Sunday after his 9-year-old daughter called 911 to say he was driving drunk with his children in the car.
Wesley Burgner has been charged with DUI, reckless driving, driving on a suspended license and endangering children while driving under the influence. The girl and her sister are now safe.
But Sunday night, one of his terrified daughters called 911 to tell a dispatcher what was happening.
“I don’t know where he is going. He is driving really fast. I don’t know where he is taking me, but I think he is going to get into a wreck,” she said.
According to the police report, the girl, who was not named, said Burgner was drinking during a road trip from Atlanta to St. Simons Island. She told police she saw two bottles that read “contains alcohol,” and he had a breathalyzer device that she said her dad could manipulate to show 0.
Burgner told deputies he was trying to take his children to the pier, but never made it, the report said.
On the 17-minute 911 call, the girl can be heard begging Burgner to pull over and stop the car as she tries to figure out where she is.
“I don’t know where I am right now. Daddy, stop the freaking car. Stop the car. Pull over somewhere,” she said.
She told the dispatcher why she was frightened.
“I am a kid, and I think my dad is driving drunk,” she said. “I know that my dad is drunk, and he is the only one driving, and I think I am going to get into a wreck because he is the only one.
During the call, the girl remembered her grandparents' address and said she believed that was where she was going.
As police narrowed down her location, she told the dispatcher what she was seeing.
Dispatcher: You don’t see any businesses at all?
Child: Um, well, coming up there's Oglethorpe Elementary.
Dispatcher: OK. She sees Oglethorpe Elementary.
Minutes later, Burgner stopped the car at his mother’s house, where he was arrested.
Police said Burgner was “visibly intoxicated,” had “slurred, slow speech, “had trouble standing” and smelled like an “alcoholic beverage.”
Burgner is being held in the Glynn County Detention Center.