Police: Elgin man drives to wrong house, charged with 4th DUI

A 48-year-old man was arrested and charged with his fourth DUI last weekend after driving to the wrong Elgin house at 3 a.m. Saturday and banging on a stranger's door, according to police and court records.

Steven M. Bauder, of the 900 block of Oak Ridge Boulevard, Elgin, faces two counts of aggravated DUI/fourth after his arrest on the city's far west side, according to an Elgin police report.

A resident of the 3000 block of Hyde Park Court called police at 3:04 a.m. Saturday after a man was knocking and yelling at his door to be let in, according to the report.

The man, later identified as Bauder, said he was at the wrong house, got back in his car and drove two doors down, the report said. An officer found Bauder in his vehicle, and his speech was slurred and he had urinated on himself, according to the report.

The 6-foot-1, 375-pound Bauder told police he had six beers before driving but later admitted to "10 drinks," the report said.

Bauder cited back and hip problems to avoid tests, such as the one-leg stand, but failed nonphysical field sobriety tests and was arrested, according to the report.

At the police station, a breath test showed his blood-alcohol concentration to be .140, according to the report; the legal threshold in Illinois is .08.

Bauder had three previous DUI arrests and convictions in Cook County in August 1992, February 1998 and February 2005, according to the police report.

Judge Kathryn Karayannis released Bauder on a personal recognizance bond, according to court records. While his case is pending, Bauder is to have no drugs or alcohol and must not drive.

He is next due in court June 17. He faces a sentence ranging from probation to up to seven years in prison if convicted of his fourth DUI case.