Elizabeth Daly, College Student, Says She Spent Night In Jail After Buying Bottled Water

A University of Virginia student says she was put in jail after buying cookie dough, ice cream and a pack of bottled water that state agents mistook for beer, according to multiple reports.

Elizabeth Daly, 20, says she was in her car in the parking lot of a Charlottesville, Va., grocery store in April when she was approached by seven plainclothes agents from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, one of whom she says pulled a gun on her, according to the Charlottesville Daily Progress.

Daly, whose story recently made headlines, turned her car on to lower the windows when she says the officers began yelling at her not to move her car and tried to break the windows. She fled the scene, not knowing if the officers were police, the outlet notes.

Read the full report at the Daily Progress.

The young college student, who was buying the groceries for a sorority fundraiser, spent the night in jail and was charged with eluding police and multiple counts of assaulting an officer -- all of which are felony offenses in Virginia. The charges have since been dropped.

In a statement to The Huffington Post, Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokesman Kathleen Shaw said that the first agent who approached Daly "identified herself as a police officer and was displaying her badge" and that "other agents did not join the incident until the subject refused to cooperate."

"Rather than comply with the officers' requests, the subject drove off, striking two officers. She was not arrested for possessing bottled water, but for running from police and striking two of them with a vehicle," Shaw said, adding that the agency is currently reviewing the incident.

The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) is a state-run agency whose mission is to safely and responsibly administer the sale and consumption of alcohol. ABC special agents have full police powers in Virginia. The agency's vision (as proclaimed on its website) is to "enhance the quality of life for Virginia's citizens" in carrying out its duties.

Perhaps surprisingly, this isn't the only contentious incident involving ABC agents in recent months. In April, a controversial video showed a rapper known as XStrav get tackled and handcuffed by a North Carolina ABC officer after the officer asked whether XStrav's iced tea contained alcohol. XStrav was charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and obstructing justice and will face a judge this September.