Crime & Courts

Three times, callers reported an Anchorage man for driving impaired. Then police got him.

Three Anchorage callers reported a suspected drunken driver to police dispatchers as he traveled from Midtown to Eagle River early Wednesday. Twice, he was spotted passed out at the wheel.

With his license plate number known, officers were waiting for Christopher D. Beck, 53, when he pulled into his Eagle River driveway. Even after his arrest, the troubles didn't end, police said.

The first call came in at 2:34 a.m. A man was slumped over the wheel of his Ford pickup idling in a southbound lane of the Seward Highway near Northern Lights Boulevard. The man woke up and started to drive. The caller provided a license number and followed the truck until the driver turned in a direction different from where the caller was going.

Police started looking for the truck, department spokeswoman Renee Oistad said in a statement.

At 2:42 a.m., another caller reported a blue Ford pickup with a possibly impaired driver heading outbound on the Glenn Highway past Airport Heights. The tag number was the same as that provided by the first caller.

Police kept looking.

The third call to dispatchers came at 2:56 a.m. The caller said a driver was passed out in the middle of the intersection of Monte Road and the Old Glenn Highway in Eagle River.

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When police arrived minutes later, he was gone.

Then they went to the address of the Ford's registered owner on West Parkview Terrace Loop. The Ford pulled into the driveway, with an officer right behind him. A man got out of the truck.

"The officer saw signs of intoxication (including) poor balance," police said. Beck refused to answer questions or perform field sobriety tests, the police statement said. Police arrested him and took him to the Anchorage jail.

In the room where police process cases of impaired driving, Beck sat in a chair, leaned to his left and fell out, police said.

In the fall, he cut his head on a cabinet. He was taken to the hospital for treatment of the wound. Police got a search warrant and collected blood for evidence.

Beck was charged with operating under the influence and violating conditions of release, police said. He also was wanted on a warrant for failing to appear in court Nov. 6 on an earlier charge of operating under the influence, filed in August. In the earlier case, he also was charged with resisting arrest by hiding or barricading himself.

The callers, police said, helped get a dangerous driver off the road.

Lisa Demer

Lisa Demer was a longtime reporter for the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Dispatch News. Among her many assignments, she spent three years based in Bethel as the newspaper's western Alaska correspondent. She left the ADN in 2018.

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