Spider scare leads to DWI charge

Southold Town police say they were tipped off to a suspected drunken driver by the screams of a passenger, whose cries were apparently triggered by fear of a spider on her lap.

Angela Kontogiannis, 32, of Bayside, was arrested about 2:40 a.m. Monday when officers responded to reports of screams in a car at the side of Route 25 in Mattituck, police said. They said officers stopped a car leaving the scene and arrested Kontogiannis on a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated.

"The screaming female turned out to be the passenger in the vehicle who thought there was a spider on her lap," a police statement said. A department spokesman could not immediately say whether there was a spider.