VALLEYWIDE : St. Patrick’s Revelers Offered Free Rides

St. Patrick’s Day revelers will be offered free rides this evening by off-duty police officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Valley Traffic Division.

Twelve donated Budget Rent-A-Car vans will be used as “Pattywagons” to pick up passengers between 7 p.m. and 2 a.m. outside restaurants or bars, Officer Tom Souza said. The number to call is (818) 902-0336.

Rides cannot exceed seven miles. Passengers will not be allowed to eat, smoke or drink in the vans. Passengers need not worry about being arrested for public drunkenness, Souza said. But they must be able to repeat their address.

“We had a guy who couldn’t remember his address last year. We drove him around for 3 1/2 hours before he mumbled out the address,” he said. “We’re not going to go through that again.”