GROVELAND, Fla. – The emergency call from outside a Burger King in Florida had nothing to do with the food.
Instead, a woman said a car was “horizontally parked in the drive-thru lane,” and she later told police the driver looked “disoriented, spaced out, with stroke-like signs.”
The arrest report from the evening of Sept. 20 also said he “was attempting to put his vehicle in reverse and drive off,” so she “opened the vehicle driver’s door and removed the keys.”
Then, while on the phone, “The driver started to become irate.”
Officers arrived to find the car “rolled up on the curb located in the drive-thru line, and the front bumper up against the fence located around the drive-thru.”
One noticed the driver, later identified as Laurence Henry Baucom, had “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath as he spoke with me.
“I also noticed Mr. Baucom to have glassy, bloodshot, watery eyes and slurred speech.
“When I asked Mr. Baucom if he had anything to drink today, he stated that he had a lot of liquor,” the officer wrote.
“I attempted to gather his information,” the officer continued, “so I could conduct an investigation in reference to the possible crash and a DUI investigation.
“I requested Mr. Baucom to provide me with his driver’s license or his name and DOB [date of birth].
“Mr. Baucom stated that he would not be providing me with the things I requested of him, and constantly stated ‘f*** you’ to all the officers on scene.”
Then, things turned physical.
“Due to Mr. Baucom refusing to provide me with his information to identify him, and him refusing to exit the vehicle,” the arrest report said, “Groveland officers and myself attempted to assist him from the vehicle.
“While trying to get Mr. Baucom to exit the vehicle, he tensed up and physically resisted our commands by pulling his left arm from us.
“[Another officer] then used his Groveland-issued Taser to gain compliance and stop Mr. Baucom from continuing to physically resist us and disobeying our commands to exit the vehicle.
“Groveland officers were eventually able to get Mr. Baucom removed from the vehicle where he continually tensed up and not comply with our instructions.
“Mr. Baucom was assisted to the ground where he was handcuffed.”
Paramedics were requested and sobriety exercises could not be conducted.
Then, the arrest report said Baucom’s wife showed up and gave the officer “permission to search the blue Honda.”
The officer reported finding “a 1/4 filled Wheatley vodka bottle 1.75 liters in the back seat floorboard of the vehicle next to a cooler, and a sealed Malibu Black 70 proof 1.75 liters sealed in a black plastic bag located on the passenger side floorboard.”
He also said Baucom’s wife “allowed me to move the vehicle to a parking spot,” where he “noticed that the vehicle did not impact the fence, and no damage was done to the vehicle.”

Authorities couldn’t get a breath sample since Baucom was admitted to the hospital, but the officer wrote he’d submit a subpoena “to get the results of his blood alcohol level.”
Baucom, 54, was charged with DUI-first offense and resisting without violence.
Online records show he was released in lieu of $2,000 bond almost 14 hours after he was booked.
Then, on Nov. 7, he pleaded no contest to the DUI charge, prosecutors dropped the resisting charge, and Baucom was sentenced to a year of probation with six months suspended.
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