Oatie the driving dog has fender-bender at the DeLand McDonald's

Dog not charged

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Sep 22, 2008 - 8:24:53pm

They say people and their pets grow more alike all the time. Maybe that's true.

Maybe that explains the dog who took the family Volvo for an ill-fated spin at the West Volusia Regional Shopping Center in South DeLand Saturday morning, Sept. 20 – he wanted to drive, just like his owners.

Here's how it happened:

Mark Shuttleworth of Lake Helen, former mayor of the historic small town and proprietor of Florida Victorian Architectural Antiques in DeLand, drove to the Winn-Dixie store in the shopping center to pick up a prescription.

The family dog, Oatie, was bored because Shuttleworth's wife, photographer-artist Anna Tomczak, was out of town.

"I decided to let Oatie ride with me," Shuttleworth said. "I only left him in the car for a couple of minutes."

That's all it took.

According to DeLand Police records, "'Oatie' apparently knocked the car into neutral (stick shift) and went for [a] ride through the parking lot. It ended with 'Oatie' crashing into an unoccupied vehicle next to McDonald's. Neither party wanted a crash report. Minor damage and no one was hurt."

Sandra Gonzalez of Deltona owns the 1997 GMC hit by Oatie in his driving debut.

"I work at the McDonald's. Someone came in and said, 'Sandra, someone hit your car.' I went running outside to see, and there was no one — just the dog."

The question she asked police is the same one that occurred to The Beacon.

"I asked the police officer: Is the dog going to get a traffic ticket?" Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said the canine crash didn't do much damage to her elderly car; she was glad nobody was hurt.

"It was funny," she said.

And, no tickets were issued. Officially, Oatie's driving record is still spotless.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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