A student at Texas State University has responded to a drunk-driving arrest and the subsequent loss of her beloved real Jeep by purchasing a used Barbie jeep for her jaunts around campus.
The student is Tara Monroe, reports Houston CBS affiliate KHOU.
Monroe, 20, purchased the pink, plastic, battery-operated car for $60 on Craigslist after she was arrested in the spring on the DWI charge.
Her father — the owner, apparently, of Monroe’s real Jeep — wasn’t happy.
“I went and put my bike rack on my jeep and proceeded to drive to San Marcos,” Monte Monroe told KHOU. “And I told her, ‘The Jeep’s mine. Here’s your bike. This is your new form of transportation.'”
Tara Monroe expressed since apologies for the DWI, her father said. The bicycle was a bridge too far, though. She couldn’t bring herself to tool around campus so gracelessly.
“She’s a diva,” Tara’s sister, Taylor, explained to the Houston station. “She doesn’t walk. She doesn’t sweat. She’s not going to ride a bike.”
The elder Monroe didn’t seem surprised. His daughter has “always got a little drama going on,” he reflected.
“I figured I’d hear back from her,” Monte Monroe also told KHOU. “Well, I did hear back from her. She said, ‘Dad, I got a Barbie jeep.’ And she sent me a picture of her in the jeep.”
Local court records show that Tara Monroe was arrested on a DWI charge on March 4. Her bond was $3,000.
The previous owner of Monroe’s Barbie jeep was a young girl named Charlene, notes the San Antonio Express-News.
“When we drove up to buy it, Charlene asked where the little one was to test drive it to which I replied, ‘I am the little one,'” the 5-foot-3 Monroe told the newspaper.
“This is the best way I could have gotten my 15 minutes of fame,” the student also said. “Basically, it was the best decision I’ve made in college — yet.
Monte Monroe said he hopes students who see his daughter tooling around in the Barbie jeep will take it as a cautionary tale.
“She is paying and continues paying the penalties for her actions,” he said. “I want her and everyone else — all the kids in college that get out there and do this type of thing — to learn from it and not do it.”
It’s not clear when — or if — she Tara Monroe will ever see the real Jeep again.
Here is Tara Monroe in action. WATCH:
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