Another tip from an observant driver early Saturday morning, Sept. 22, alerted police to a man eventually charged with drunk driving in Barrington after he was found asleep at the wheel in the road.

The complaint from the caller came in to police at 2:24 am. The caller said that a vehicle traveling on the Wampanoag Trail near County Road was starting, stopping and weaving in the southbound lane, according to the police report.

The caller also indicated that the vehicle was attempting to make a left turn with no place to turn and was making numerous stops in the middle of the highway, according to the police report.

Two Barrington patrol officers, Michael Gregorzek and Timothy Oser, and Sgt. Gino Caputo responded.  They found the vehicle, a black Mini Cooper, with a driver “who appeared to be asleep in the car with his foot on the brake and the transmission in neutral,” said Police Chief John LaCross.

The car was stopped in the middle of the road, he said.

The driver, Stanton E. Sturgis, 23, of 75 Ridge Road, Bristol, told police after he was roused that he was trying to locate an aunt’s house. But he seemed “confused” and unable to tell officers where he was going, LaCross said.

Officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol coming from the car, LaCross said. Sturgis refused to submit to a Breathalyzer test. He failed the field sobriety tests, LaCross said.

Sturgis was taken to the police station, where he was arraigned by a justice of the peace. He was charged with a DUI, first offense, and refusal to submit to a chemical test. His car was towed.