Drunk Husband Fined, Loses License After Wife Makes a Threat

Drunk Husband Fined, Loses License After Wife Makes a Threat
A man receiving a breathalyzer test in China. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Daniel Holl
8/26/2019
Updated:
9/4/2019

A woman’s ultimatum on her inebriated husband may have put him out of work.

The man was fined and temporarily lost his license for drunk driving after his wife threatened to divorce him if he did not come to give her a ride, according to an online report from Chinese traffic police on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

Police fined the unnamed man 2,000 yuan ($280) for driving under the influence on Aug. 19 in Zhuhai City of China’s southern Guangdong Province.

The man argued passionately to the traffic police that his wife was threatening to divorce him if he did not drive, despite his attempt to sleep off his evening of drinking, according to the Aug. 22 report from the Zhuhai Traffic Police.

“I‘ll show you the messages: ’If you don’t come, [we’re getting a] divorce!'” the man shouted loudly as he narrated his wife’s text message to an officer, according to video captured on police body cameras.

“This is how she harms me!”

On top of losing his license, the man works as a dump truck driver, which he is now unable to operate, according to the Zhuhai Traffic Police.

The unnamed man had been drinking that evening, and had went to sleep at home. At around 2:00 a.m., while was sleeping, his wife contacted him, demanding that he come to a local hotel and pick her up, according to the Zhuhai Traffic Police. “She made her co-worker call me, I didn’t pick it up,” the man argued to police after he had been stopped, as seen in the video footage.

However, after his wife threatened to get a divorce, the man felt he had no choice but to drive out to honor her request.

Traffic police in China often set up sobriety checkpoints. The man happened to go through one. He blew a a .07 when police administered a breathalyzer test, according to the Zhuhai Traffic Police, which is above China’s legal limit.

“[She] absolutely demanded this of me, she’s my wife, so I had to go!” the man says to the officers in the video, explaining how he felt wronged in the situation. “I didn’t want to go in the first place.”

“That’s really not right, saying that,” one officer said in response to the wife’s message.

The man continued to argue with the police, but to no avail. Officers suspended his license for six months and fined him 2,000 yuan ($280).

No further information was given on his wife’s response or his future employment.

Daniel Holl is a Sacramento, California-based reporter, specializing in China-related topics. He moved to China alone and stayed there for almost seven years, learning the language and culture. He is fluent in Mandarin Chinese.
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