Numerous alarmed people watching a Periscope stream called police in Florida on Saturday night. They were watching a young woman broadcasting herself driving drunk, according to the Lakeland Police Department.
‘‘I am (expletive) drunk,’’ she said at one point in the stream, a copy of which WTSP published.
Whitney Beall, 23, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in the incident that left no injuries.
Periscope, Twitter’s live-video streaming app, launched less than a year ago on iPhone and Androids, and it has led to people getting into trouble with the law. In August, two men in Sacramento were arrested after authorities said they broadcast themselves brandishing a gun and hunting down another man. A month earlier, two teenagers in Utah were charged with burglary and theft after police said they Periscoped themselves breaking into an ice cream truck. Someone watching the feed called to report the crime.
In the case of the Florida DUI, viewers tried to stop Beall, who repeatedly said she had a flat tire, didn’t know where she was and that she was drunk, according to police.
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‘‘As a result of the video being streamed worldwide, numerous text messages were sent to the driver asking her to stop driving before she killed someone or herself,’’ police said in a statement.
An officer had to download Periscope on a personal phone to see the feed, since the app is blocked on department phones, according to police. The feed kept cutting in and out, but some details from the feed helped police track down Beall as she drove on a flat tire.
Her Toyota Corolla ‘‘abruptly’’ hit a curb just as officers tried to pull her over, according to police. Officers said that her speech was slurred and that she ‘‘appeared to be disoriented.’’ Beall refused a breathalyzer and failed field sobriety tests, police said.
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‘‘The streaming Periscope video highlights the dangers of driving while intoxicated through the eyes of a drunk and irresponsible young adult,’’ police said in a statement. ‘‘The Lakeland Police Department is extremely thankful that this did not result in an accident and no one was injured as a result of her poor decision.’’