Midnight Dip Ends With Sunrise Trip…To Jail

New Hartford (WIBX) - A midnight dip ends up with a sunrise trip...to jail.

New Hartford Police discovered a wet and mud-covered group of people standing on the side of Chenango road at about 4:00am yesterday. One woman in the group was suffering from hypothermia.

As rescue crews were arriving police saw, and heard, a car dragging parts and pieces hanging from it, as it was leaving a nearby parking lot. Apparently the driver was part of the group and had gone off to get the car but got disoriented and crashed into a utility pole. He was trying to get away when police stopped him.

The group had apparently been drinking in Utica earlier that night and then decided to go for a swim in Sauquoit Creek. All were allegedly highly intoxicated. The car's driver, Ramon Mercado-Gomez, 32, was sent to the Oneida County Jail and charged with DWI.