Germantown woman's arrest linked to Vanilla Extract, Drug Counselors say it's not uncommon

April Thompson

5:46 PM CDT, July 2, 2010

• Germantown woman charged with DUI after running her car on curb
• Officers say she had vanilla extract bottle which contained 35% alcohol
• Moss reportedly slumped over the wheel, unable to stand on her own

(Arlington, TN 7/2/2010) - Forty-eight year old Kelly Moss appears in court Friday and gets a 4-thousand dollar bond for what happened on this Arlington Street.

Sam Palmer saw her car.

"It was jumped up over the curb. She had driven it up on the curb. In fact I went to see if she had hit the telephone pole. She hadn't hit that, but she had both wheels on the curb," says Palmer.

Police say Moss had a strong odor of vanilla on her breath and was unsteady on her feet.

They found a nearly empty bottle of vanilla extract and a partially empty bottle of diet coke in her car.
 
The vanilla extract said 35-percent alcohol.

Moss was arrested.

Sam Palmer doesn't know her, but as a recovering alcoholic, he knows abusers find ways to get their drug.

"Mouthwash, Geritol, Robitussin," says Palmer.

As a drug addiction counselor, Dr. Carolyn Bryant has seen it too.

"Instead of the drug that may be their drug of choice, that may be they have been arrested for or got in trouble about, they take something that will give them that same effect," says Bryant.

She counsels women to admit their problem and seek help.

"I hope she gets in a treatment program or a 12 step program," says Palmer. "She could have hit a telephone pole, could have wiped somebody else out."

This was Kelly Moss' third DUI arrest. No one answered the door at her Germantown home when we stopped by.

She will be back in court August 19th. 

LINK TO VIDEO 

http://www.wreg.com/videobeta/0b4d9fbd-4338-422a-9193-04d787b2b00a/News/Vanilla-DUI