Eh?: Boat lost, not forgotten

You should hope Officer Gerald Beauchamp finds your boat if it ever gets lost in the wind and the waves.

Beauchamp, of the Superior Police Department, found a boat that Ann Klefstad had been pulling across the water on Saturday.

"The waves were building to 10 feet, and the dingy we were towing was grabbed by a big wave," Klefstad said. "The line snapped about five miles out from Superior Entry."

They called the Coast Guard to report the unattended dingy and looked for it on Wisconsin Point that night but couldn't find it.

"The next morning Officer Beauchamp called me," Klefstad said. "He had secured the dingy and motor on Wisconsin Point -- apparently someone had been walking off with the motor."

Beauchamp waited there with the boat in the rain to keep it safe until Klefstad could get there. She says thanks for taking responsibility for the boat.

"Without him, the boat would have been lost twice," she said.

Corn feeds thousands

People walking through the Engwall Corn Maze this fall helped raise enough money to feed 23,410 Northlanders, according to Rod Saline, Engwall's owner.

Saline presented the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank a check for

$4,680 on Tuesday. One dollar from each person's admission to the corn maze went to the food bank.

Corn Maze co-producer Tracy Lundeen said they're hoping to build on their

success next year.

Both stupid and wrong

You know it's wrong to steal but don't forget it's also usually stupid and dangerous.

Take for instance the theft of copper grounding bars and copper wire an AT&T employee recently discovered from a cellular tower in the town of Superior.

The theft not only endangered public safety, but could have killed the criminal, said Detective Sgt. Ed Anderson of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department.

He told the Superior Telegram that cell phone towers are grounded to give built-up static electricity somewhere to discharge. At any time, a charge could be traveling through the wires to ground out.

Plus the thoughtless thief could have disrupted cell phone service in the area of the tower, which could affect public safety and access to 911 services.

"It's a very dangerous practice to be stealing wire from any antenna,"

Anderson said.

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