Do You Remember When Someone Brought a Zebra to a Dubuque Bar?

This whole story sounds like the setup/punchline of an age-old joke, but it actually happened and it's still talked about around Dubuque to this day.

Last night, while on a double date, one person in our friend group recalled the time a man brought a real-life zebra and parrot to a bar in Dubuque. I had to Google the skeleton of this story just to see if I could get any kind of confirmation. As it turns out, this really did happen. And it's stranger than fiction.

It all went down in May 2012. Jerald Reiter, 55 of Cascade, IA, stopped at the homey Dubuque staple The Dog House Lounge on a Sunday evening. Reiter had a zebra and a macaw in his vehicle, which immediately attracted the attention of bar patrons. People were taking pictures, and someone phoned the police.

When police arrived, they charged Reiter with operating while intoxicated. But the zebra and the parrot? Those were actually Reiter's pets!

In an interview with HLN, Vickey Teter, Reiter's girlfriend, stated that the animals are part of their family:

We take them for car rides and they go and they get the mail with me. They are a big part of the family [....] It's not everyday you see somebody that's got a zebra or a parrot in the house, and who knows tomorrow what might be in our house. - Vickey Teter, per HLN

As far as the arrest was concerned, Reiter argued that while he was behind the wheel of his pickup truck, the vehicle wasn't in motion. Per Iowa law, however, that is still considered OWI. A friend of Reiter's drove the truck and animals back to his Cascade home after he was arrested.

This is such a wild story, and I love that it's become something of a legendary tale for Dubuque residents. You can find more information on The Gazette's website.

Also worth noting: every first Tuesday of the month during the Dubuque Fighting Saints' season, The Dog House Lounge hosts the Saints' Coach's Show with Kirk MacDonald. You can also listen to the broadcast of the show from 6pm - 7pm on Eagle 102.3!