For getting around, lawn mower doesn't cut it

Maybe, if his mower had run like a deer, David Robert Ohm might have gotten away.

Instead, the 41-year-old man was arrested this week on suspicion of illegally riding a lawn mower on a highway because he has no driver's license, which was taken away in 2001 after a drunken-driving arrest.

"He's been using that mower as a mode of transportation," Wright County Sheriff Gary Miller said. "He doesn't have a driver's license."

Ohm, who lives in Montrose, is not allowed to drive or be in control of any motorized vehicle. Until recently, Ohm had been riding a bicycle, Miller said.

"It's a small town. Our deputies know Dave. They know who doesn't have a license," Miller said.

Ohm was picked up in Marysville Township on Tuesday night while going along Hwy. 12 on a Snapper riding mower. He was traveling west in a turn lane, with an orange triangle affixed to the back of the mower, Miller said.

Ohm was not available for comment on Friday.

"Dave isn't the first," Miller said. "It's not real common, but there's been a number of these cases. I think it happens all over the state. ATVs are fairly common. Guys use them to go to liquor establishments."

In late June, Miller's deputies arrested a 49-year-old man who was driving a riding lawn mower down the middle of Maple Avenue in Maple Lake and almost hitting two trucks.

Deputies who arrested the man as he pulled into the American Legion parking lot detected a strong odor of alcohol on his breath. He was found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.208 percent and a revoked license for a 2007 drunken-driving arrest.

In April, Wright County deputies arrested another man on suspicion of drunken driving, this time on top of a full-size tractor while traveling "at a high rate of speed," according to a criminal complaint filed by the Wright County attorney's office.

The 48-year-old Waverly man, whose license was taken away in 1989 as a threat to public safety, had a blood-alcohol content of 0.29 an hour after his arrest, the complaint said.

"You can get ticketed for that," said Deb Carlson, exam program manager for the state Department of Driver and Vehicle Services. "They don't have driving privileges to operate a motor vehicle."

Miller said he has seen people use tractors, riding mowers, all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and other motor vehicles to get around the prohibition.

"About the only thing you'd be safe in these days that has a motor is a Segway," said Miller, who explained that the exemption is written into state law.

"That's been ruled not to be a motor vehicle, even though it has a motor in it."