Driving under the influence – over three times the legal limit – was the charge. It was a “hangover” though that caught the attention of several Manteca citizens.
Sean Clarke Phelan, 37, of Pacifica had driven in behind the Beacon gas station and convenience store at 1399 East Yosemite Avenue Friday afternoon on his way to visit his mother in the foothills.
Witnesses said they saw him drive up to a two-foot high retaining wall, stop, and then gun his 2006 Honda Civic. The car bottomed out on the top of the wall with the front hanging over the parking lot.
Patrons at the nearby taqueira, who witnessed the mishap and the subsequent “hangover” of the vehicle, said the motorist came over to them and asked them to lift his car back off of the small wall. Several tried but were unable to lift the car that was setting waist high.
One of the patrons called the Bulletin saying, “You’ve got to see this at the Beacon station – a car is stuck with its front wheels in the air and some guys are trying to lift it off a wall.”
A Bulletin staffer responded to find the motorist appearing somewhat dazed and possibly under the influence calling traffic officers who performed a sobriety test on the driver and retrieved a partially emptied bottle of Vodka from the his pocket.
He was overheard saying he was enroute to the foothills having left Pacifica about 7 a.m., thinking he was at a service station in Stockton rather than Manteca.
Phelan went to the Manteca city jail and his car was towed to a storage yard.
Sean Clarke Phelan, 37, of Pacifica had driven in behind the Beacon gas station and convenience store at 1399 East Yosemite Avenue Friday afternoon on his way to visit his mother in the foothills.
Witnesses said they saw him drive up to a two-foot high retaining wall, stop, and then gun his 2006 Honda Civic. The car bottomed out on the top of the wall with the front hanging over the parking lot.
Patrons at the nearby taqueira, who witnessed the mishap and the subsequent “hangover” of the vehicle, said the motorist came over to them and asked them to lift his car back off of the small wall. Several tried but were unable to lift the car that was setting waist high.
One of the patrons called the Bulletin saying, “You’ve got to see this at the Beacon station – a car is stuck with its front wheels in the air and some guys are trying to lift it off a wall.”
A Bulletin staffer responded to find the motorist appearing somewhat dazed and possibly under the influence calling traffic officers who performed a sobriety test on the driver and retrieved a partially emptied bottle of Vodka from the his pocket.
He was overheard saying he was enroute to the foothills having left Pacifica about 7 a.m., thinking he was at a service station in Stockton rather than Manteca.
Phelan went to the Manteca city jail and his car was towed to a storage yard.
