Four times in less than three hours, troopers stopped the Chrysler sedan as it rocketed across southern Minnesota at speeds topping 110 miles per hour, its driver carrying a small amount of marijuana but no proof of required car insurance.
The stops earned Lorretta Lacy, 49, a handful of tickets and cost her the drug stash as she raced across two states to get to a granddaughter's middle-school dance in Racine, Wis.
The serial police stops began shortly before 2:30 p.m. Friday on Interstate 90 about 10 miles east of Jackson. Witnesses reported her speeding and zipping in and out of traffic, according to the State Patrol.
Lacy, of Sioux Falls, S.D., was clocked at 112 mph in her 1999 Chrysler LHS as she passed a state trooper, then was stopped and ticketed for speeding, no proof of insurance and possession of marijuana, said Patrol Lt. Eric Roeske. A "very, very small amount" of marijuana was confiscated, Roeske said.
Just about 20 miles later, she was pulled over near the Fairmont exit, this time clocked at 99 mph. Again, she was ticketed for speeding and no proof of insurance, the patrol said.
After Minnesota and Wisconsin patrols were put on the lookout, she was stopped a little more than an hour later, 10 miles east of Albert Lea, this time for driving 88 mph and no proof of insurance.
Her last of four Minnesota speeding tickets on I-90 came shortly before 5 p.m. for driving 88 in a 70 mph zone just south of Rochester.
While such serial highway behavior is unusual -- and dangerous -- officers rarely take someone off the road for such offenses, police and prosecutors said.
