One vehicle, two DUIs

A Connecticut couple took turns driving a vehicle like this leading to dual DUI citations.

A Connecticut couple is facing dual DUI charges after they pulled into the Cortina Inn to argue who was the better driver.

According to the Vermont state police, two employees at the Cortina Inn off Route 4 in Mendon said the couple pulled into the hotel’s parking lot Monday evening and began yelling at each other. The employees said 40-year-old Brandi Fein of North Stonington, Conn., got out of the driver’s seat and began to yell at 58-year-old David Abbot of Ledyard, Conn., who was in the passenger seat.

Police said the employees told them they heard Fein yell words to the effect “if you can drive better, then let’s see you do it” to Abbot, who then took the wheel and drove the couple’s 2007 yellow Toyota FJ Cruiser toward Rutland city with Fein as a passenger.

The employees called the state police who stopped the duo in Rutland Town on Post Road by the Rutland Town School just before 7 p.m.

Each was “substantially intoxicated” police said and tests indicated each had a BAC that was more than twice above the legal limit, police said. They were processed for DUI, police said.

Small Dog burglarized again

Thieves smashed the front door to the Small Dog Electronics store in Waitsfield Sunday night to enter the building , according to state police, who are reviewing surveillance tape.

The store at 1673 Main Street was burglarized twice in December with a number of small electronic items such as iPods taken. Surveillance tape of one of those burglaries shows two men breaking the front door to gain access and taking items from two display cases.

Two teens die in Clarendon crash

A late night crash on Cold River Road in Clarendon left two 18-year-olds dead after the car they were in crashed and landed roof-down in the Cold River just after midnight Friday.

Police said the driver, Dominic McGuire of Proctor, and a passenger, Paul Cormia Jr., of Rutland Town, died in the crash. A second passenger,  Justin Slade, 17, also of Proctor, managed to escape and walk to a nearby residence to get help.

McGuire was driving a Buick Century when it went off the east side of Cold River Road just south of the Rutland Town line. The car slid 100 feet down an embankment and came to rest on its roof in the Cold River. Police said the car had “major damage throughout.”