Fish in shoe provided clue in man's arrest

The discovery of a fish by police in Towamencin, Pennsylvania, was part of a bizarre series of events that led to the arrest of a Hatfield Township man on charges of fleeing law enforcement, public drunkenness and more after his car was found submerged in a creek. Police said that just before 10pm on Feb. 7, officers responded after a resident reported that a seemingly intoxicated man had knocked on his door, told him that he had been in a car accident, and that someone had pulled a gun on him. The resident immediately closed the door and called the police.

Officers who arrived at the scene soon found a man fitting the description of the suspicious individual in the area and detained him. He was identified as Rickie Michael Arroyo, 25, and reeked of alcohol and showed other signs of impairment, according to police. He was also soaking wet, police said. Arroyo denied knocking on anyone’s door or of having been in a car accident, officers said, but could not explain why he was in the neighbourhood. When asked what kind of car he owned and where it was, Arroyo said he had a white Honda that should be parked in front of his house.



Officers took Arroyo into custody for public drunkenness and subsequently discovered he had a minnow in his sneaker, which led officers to surmise that he may have walked through a creek prior to his arrest. After processing at Towamencin police headquarters, Arroyo was released later that night into the custody of a “responsible party.” However, officers who continued to investigate the strange incident determined that Arroyo owned a blue Hyundai, not a white Honda, and Hatfield police confirmed that the Hyundai was not in his driveway as he had stated.

Just before midnight, police said they spotted the car belonging to the person who picked up Arroyo from the police station and found Arroyo inside the vehicle. Officers also saw tyre tracks going past a dead end sign, which led them to Arroyo’s Hyundai, which was submerged in a nearby creek - police said they recognised it as a vehicle that had fled from police at around 9:30pm that night after officers saw it travelling at a high rate of speed and pursued it, but lost sight of it. Arroyo was arrested again at the scene. He’s been charged with second-degree misdemeanor fleeing from law enforcement and summary counts of careless driving, speeding, public drunkenness and trespass by a motor vehicle.