Stoned Del. student gets lost in Conn.
Associated Press
07/11/2004
A Delaware college student ate a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms and drove
around in a pair of stolen cars before arriving, confused, on a mountain in
northwest Connecticut police said.
Paul Cunningham, 21, hiked to a nearby home Thursday night and asked to call
911, police said.
"I think I stole a car," Cunningham told a dispatcher. "I'm not sure."
Police said Cunningham, of Dover, Del., confessed that eating an entire bag
of mushrooms, "probably wasn't a good idea." He allegedly told investigators
that he had no idea how many laws he broke during a three-day excursion that
took him 300 miles from home.
A student at Wilmington College, he told a state trooper that he bought the
drugs in Dover on Monday, according to the Republican-American of Waterbury.
The next day, he went for a drive and twice got lost in Connecticut.
He told police he remembers taking a train to LaGuardia Airport in New York,
where he found a car with its keys in it. He's unsure where he went from
there.
"I once again found myself lost in Connecticut," Cunningham reportedly told
police.
After locking the keys in the stolen car, Cunningham allegedly stole a van
from a Southbury rest stop.
In Canaan, he decided to climb Music Mountain to see what was on the other
side, police said. Investigators believe the exercise cleared Cunningham's
head.
"I want to correct my mistakes," Cunningham reportedly told Trooper Andre
Roy. "In retrospect, this was a bad idea."
He volunteered a written confession, police said. He was arraigned Friday
and was held on $2,500 bail. Both stolen vehicles were recovered.