Police: Colts owner Jim Irsay had nearly $30,000 in car when arrested

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was carrying more than $29,000 cash in his vehicle when he was pulled over and eventually arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated last week, police say.

Police reports obtained by the Indianapolis Star indicate that $29,029 was found in the Toyota Highlander the 54-year-old billionaire was driving, mostly stashed in a metal briefcase and a laundry bag that also contained a number of bottles containing prescription drugs.

Carmel, Ind., police have not yet decided to charge Irsay over the drugs. He was held for several hours on four preliminary counts of possession of a controlled substance and a preliminary misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated.

According to the documents, Irsay was pulled over after an officer noticed him driving some 25 mph under the speed limit, coming to a stop more than once and turning without using a signal. The officer wrote that Irsay informed him that he was having trouble finding his home.

The police report lists Irsay’s address as approximately 3½ miles from where he was pulled over. But Hamilton County records show that Irsay recently bought another home a half-mile from the site, the Star reports.

The arresting officer wrote that Irsay was slurring his words, appeared disoriented and had red, watery eyes.

Irsay took a portable breath test at the scene, although the results were redacted from the police report obtained by the Star. He later declined to submit to a blood test, a decision that resulted in an automatic one-year suspension of his driver’s license under Indiana law, and eventually had to have blood drawn under court order.

He also struggled with some of the field sobriety tests, according to the report. When asked to recite the alphabet from C to N, Irsay successfully made it to M before starting over and proceeding all the way to Z, then adding I-N-G at the end.

Outside of the vehicle, Irsay had trouble remaining upright during other tests and eventually was asked to sit on the hood of the police car for his own safety, the report said.