David Heiller
News
reports I would like to see...
HINCKLEY (AP)—An
unknown number of masked robbers broke into the personal belongings of two
families at a campground east of Hinckley last week.
The unidentified assailants damaged property at
St. Croix State Park, made personal threats, and carted off a quantity of food
on Wednesday, June 13, before the campers could stop them.
 |
| Joey and Nora Shields and Noah and Malika Heiller: before the invasion. |
The campers then
withstood several more attacks by the group during a long and sleepless night.
No one was hurt, although two seven-year-old
boys were visibly shaken when they had to abandon their pup tent to sleep with
one set of parents.
Camper Cindy Heiller also had one attacker come
at her for a short distance after she attempted to chase it away in the late
afternoon.
The incident came after the Shields and Heiller
families returned from a bicycle trip in the park. While the men were playing
baseball with their children, three invaders approached the women and a
15-month-old baby.
They laughed at first. Then Cindy tried to chase
one away, running at it half-bent, shaking her arms and yelling in a gutteral
voice.
The invader bent over,
shook its head, and ran right back TOWARD Cindy, who quickly lost her bravado
and retreated to a picnic table.
The invader then started climbing into the trunk
of a car to investigate its contents. The men returned at that time, and armed
themselves with rocks to protect their family and property.
Both were heard to remark that they wished they
were NRA members, or at least had brought along a small caliber pistol to take
justice into their own hands.
Cindy also reported
that the robbers destroyed a large Tupperware container full of chocolate chip
bars which she had baked for the trip. She said they had passed up two bags of
tortilla chips and marshmallows to get to the bars, which they also sampled and
ate.
“At least they liked the bars,” her husband, David,
said. Cindy had no comment to that remark.
The rest of the evening passed without incident.
As darkness fell, the families tucked their two sons into an old pup tent for
their first night of camping without adults by their side. David checked the
latch on their cooler. It was shut tight. The campfire died down, and the nine
people settled into their tents and sleeping bags.
The silence was broken when Carolyn Shields
called out from her tent across the campsite, “Dave, is that you?”
Dave, who was reading by candlelight in the
Heiller tent, wondered what she was talking about. “Yes, this is me,” he said.
Kevin Shield’s voice then broke the silence in a
stream of yells that can’t be repeated here. A tent zipped open, pots crashed
and sticks and rocks flew. Kevin ran from his tent in his underwear. His
flashlight spotted one invader sauntering off with a roll of braunschweiger
over his shoulder. Another one had a package of Hershey bars already opened and
half-eaten. The thieves had removed these items from Heillers’ cooler. The
braunschweiger and most of the Hershey bars were recovered.
After Kevin yelled and chased after them, they
both dropped their goods, perhaps startled as much by Kevin’s attire as his
words. But they made no attempt to run away. One continued eating a Hershey
bar. Kevin’s flashlight revealed at least three invaders at the edge of the
campsites.
“They sounded so methodical,” Carolyn said. “I
thought it was Dave grabbing a midnight snack.”
Shields and Heiller packed everything edible into
their cars and returned to their tents. But that didn’t bring peace and quiet.
The invaders came again. Garbage can lids banged. Kevin started swearing and
yelling again. The raccoons started snarling and fighting between themselves,
apparently over a half-eaten candy bar. The kids started crying. David Heiller
started laughing.
David had to rescue the two oldest boys from
their pup tent, while the Shields’ middle daughter returned to Mommy and Daddy’s
side.
After another 10 minutes, things quieted down in
the campsite. Then, from the next campsite 20 yards away, a tent unzipped, garbage
can lids clanged, and a stream of obscenities similar to Kevin’s could be heard
in the night.
The next morning, the bleary-eyed campers
discovered that no one was missing, and most of their food and property was
intact. They even managed a smile.
They described the thieves as about two feet
tall, with small hands capable of picking locks; wearing masks and scraggly fur
coats, and having bushy tails with dark rings on them.
An investigation is
pending.
No comments:
Post a Comment