We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

Published|Updated

Is there anything in childhood more traumatizing than a spelling bee?

Of course, there is, but spelling bees are still pretty bad. I still remember the one I was in. It was in third grade. I misspelled “lettuce” in front of the whole school. I can’t help but feel like I’d be a very successful brain surgeon had I gotten it right…

Anyway, one DUI suspect in South Carolina decided that sitting in the back of a squad car was as good a time as any to get a bee going.

According to WCIV, 41-year-old Richard Anthony Demato — the pride of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina — was arrested after police were called to Walgreens for a report of a reckless driver.

When they got there they found Demato next to a Jeep Cherokee with a blown-out tire. Once they approached him, police realized he didn’t seem particularly steady.

The first sign that Demato’s arrest would be interesting came when police asked if he’d be willing to perform a field sobriety test, to which he replied, “Nah.”

Alrighty then…

But then it got weirder when Demato got placed in the back of a squad car. After getting belligerent while getting checked out at a hospital, Demato reportedly called an officer an “idiot” and then challenged him to a spelling bee.

He wasn’t messing around with this spelling bee, because Demato then spelled “Britain,” which makes me think he’s not as much of a spelling bee guy as I was led to believe because I don’t think they usually do proper nouns in spelling bees. 

I feel like anyone that quick to throw down the spelling gauntlet should know that.

At the jail, Demato continued to shout obscenities and racial slurs and even kicked an officer.

He’s now facing charges of DUI, hit-and-run with property damage, and assaulting or resisting police.