Restaurant rewards woman who left SUV parked overnight after drinking

SHERWOOD PARK, Alberta, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A woman who parked her SUV at a restaurant overnight returned to find a note thanking her for not driving drunk -- and a voucher for free wings.

Paula Schultz said she and her husband decided to take an Uber home after drinking some wine at Original Joe's in Sherwood Park, Alberta, and she returned almost 48 hours later to find a note on the snow-covered windshield of her SUV.

"I thought I was getting in trouble," Shultz told CTV Edmonton.

The note, which Schultz shared on Facebook, wasn't an admonition -- rather, it was a letter from Original Joe's managing partner Jay McLean thanking her for not driving while intoxicated.

The note reads:

"Dear Original Joe's Sherwood Park Guest,

Just wanted to thank you for leaving your car parked overnight. I'm not sure if you had consumed alcohol at our restaurant or not, but we wanted to thank you for not drinking and driving. Enclosed is a voucher good for 1lb of our delicious chicken wings. Please accept this as a thank you for being responsible. Life is valuable, have a great weekend."

Schultz said she and her husband had indeed been drinking at the eatery.

"You don't have to be drunk to be impaired," she told TODAY.com. "I wasn't some crazy drunk lady, but I definitely had no business driving."

McLean said he has been rewarding patrons who leave their cars overnight with similar vouchers for about a year and a half.

"I just thought operating a restaurant in a rural type area like Sherwood Park where transit is minimal and a lot of people drive, I just thought it was the perfect match," he said.