A Massachusetts man was arrested for drunk driving after he drove his car onto the lawn of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson’s house in Dorset, Vt., on Christmas Eve.

According to the Rutland Herald, Donald Blood III, 55, apparently took the front lawn of the Wilson House for a parking lot and parked his car very conspicuously on the property. After Blood’s ill-advised and inebriated maneuver, Vermont State Police were called to the scene around 7:30 p.m. EST on Christmas Eve.

State Trooper Christopher Burnett said Blood was arrested at the Wilson House after it was determined that he had been driving under the influence. Blood is scheduled to appear in a Vermont court to defend himself on Jan. 14.

The Wilson House is used as a weekly meeting place for several Alcoholics Anonymous groups and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Its website describes the house as “place of sanctuary where people can come to give thanks to God for their new lives.”

Wilson was born on the property in 1895, only a year after the house was constructed. Wilson found himself addicted to alcohol while serving in the First World War and would frequently go on long binges. Wilson claimed that he did not graduate law school because he was too drunk to pick up his diploma.

In 1933, Wilson entered a rehabilitation center after his business reputation was ruined by his drinking. While in the Charles B. Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addiction, Wilson learned about the psychology of addiction from Dr. William D. Silkworth.

Two years later, Wilson founded the mutual aid movement Alcoholics Anonymous with Dr. Bob Smith in 1935. Following Alcoholics Anonymous’s longstanding policy of anonymity, Wilson was largely known simply as “Bill W.” or “Bill.”

Addiction