Sometimes reality truly is stranger than fiction.
A Dubuque County, Iowa man was arrested for operating while intoxicated after police stopped him to check on the passengers in his pickup truck.
The passengers were a zebra and a McCaw.
Police were sent to the Dog House Bar and Lounge in Dubuque to check the welfare of the animals inside a pickup truck Sunday night, May 20, 2012.
When they arrived, police said 55-year-old Jerald Reiter of Cascade, Iowa, was driving away in the truck. Police stopped the truck in the business parking lot.
Reiter reportedly told police the zebra likes to ride in the truck, so he brought it along when he went out for dinner. He reportedly gave the same explanation for the bird's presence in the truck.
Police said Reiter was arrested after field sobriety tests indicated he had a .148 blood alcohol level. The legal limit in Iowa is .08.
Online records show Mr. Reiter was released from the Dubuque County Jail May 21, 2012.
Jerald Reiter (jail photo)
(our reporting partners at KCRG assisted with background information for this report)