{"id":41474,"date":"2024-01-30T13:29:44","date_gmt":"2024-01-30T18:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=41474"},"modified":"2024-01-30T13:29:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-30T18:29:49","slug":"an-assistant-principal-in-lakeland-was-arrested-for-driving-under-the-influence-on-the-wrong-way-of-i-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2024\/01\/30\/an-assistant-principal-in-lakeland-was-arrested-for-driving-under-the-influence-on-the-wrong-way-of-i-4\/","title":{"rendered":"An assistant principal in Lakeland was arrested for driving under the influence on the wrong way of I-4"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An assistant principal in&nbsp;Lakeland&nbsp;was arrested for driving under the influence early Sunday morning after driving the wrong way on I-4, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"414\" height=\"512\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 414px) 100vw, 414px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2f4ed4a8-c055-4869-8306-6fd4ac907003-2024-02845FACEF-fb4b775c-031e-42f0-bbae-021584d1e42f.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-41475\" style=\"width:275px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2f4ed4a8-c055-4869-8306-6fd4ac907003-2024-02845FACEF-fb4b775c-031e-42f0-bbae-021584d1e42f.jpeg 414w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/2f4ed4a8-c055-4869-8306-6fd4ac907003-2024-02845FACEF-fb4b775c-031e-42f0-bbae-021584d1e42f-243x300.jpeg 243w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Craig R. Hilgenberg, 37, of Lakeland, was arrested after he drove in the wrong direction on I-4 between&nbsp;Plant City&nbsp;and Lakeland in the early hours of Sunday, according to FHP.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lakeland asst. principal arrested for DUI chase<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An assistant principal in Lakeland was arrested on Sunday for allegedly driving the wrong way on I-4 while under the influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hilgenberg is the assistant principal at Lincoln Avenue Academy in Lakeland and was named a finalist for Assistant Principal of the Year in&nbsp;Polk County&nbsp;for 2023.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">FHP troopers responded to the area of I-4 at County Line Road at around 1:30 a.m. after they were notified of a car driving east in the westbound lanes of the interstate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Youtube aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"f583d393-32af-4666-b0ee-383784d7900c\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-8b425325eb5dfcae20e5ef6afcc31329\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-84feebd93bd13278c43d12bc5747e22d ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; height:340px; max-height:340px; max-width:100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"man driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of I-4\" width=\"600\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2Teu0wwKiUw?feature=oembed&#038;color=red&#038;rel=1&#038;controls=2&#038;start=true&#038;end=true&#038;fs=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; encrypted-media;accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;gyroscope;picture-in-picture clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"An assistant principal in Lakeland was arrested for driving under the influence on the wrong way of I-4\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wrong-way driver arrested on I-4, troopers say<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 37-year-old Lakeland man later identified as Craig R. Hilgenberg, was arrested early on Sunday morning after driving the wrong way on I-4. Hilgenberg was driving under the influence, according to troopers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the responding trooper approached Exit 32 (US-98), they witnessed a red Honda Accord driving east on the inside shoulder of I-4 in the westbound lanes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The trooper then activated their emergency lights and siren, but the Honda passed the trooper in the center lane of I-4 headed east. The trooper performed a P.I.T. maneuver to try to end the pursuit safely, according to FHP, but Hilgenberg kept going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A second P.I.T. maneuver was necessary to stop the car on the inside shoulder of I-4 in the median. FHP said Hilgenberg smelled like alcohol and had slurred speech and was arrested at around 1:46 a.m., according to the arrest report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was taken to the Polk County Jail where he threw up in the parking lot. Authorities said the vomit smelled like alcohol. Officials said he refused to perform field sobriety exercises or provide a breath sample.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He was charged with one count of fleeing with disregard for the safety of persons or property and one count of driving under the Influence of alcohol or drugs. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hilgenberg is on administrative leave while the Polk County Public Schools reviews the incident, according to a spokesperson with the district.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hilgenberg is out on a $6000 bond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An assistant principal in&nbsp;Lakeland&nbsp;was arrested for driving under the influence early Sunday morning after driving the wrong way on I-4, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. &nbsp; Craig R. Hilgenberg,&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[7415],"class_list":["post-41474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-an-assistant-principal-in-lakeland-was-arrested-for-driving-under-the-influence-on-the-wrong-way-of-i-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}