[mowana PD]

Last Saturday was a great day. Casey and I spent the day at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. Upon returning home from a long and warm day at the amusement park we let the dogs out of the house to stretch their legs. Since we live on a 183 acre privately owned camp and retreat facility that is designed to be utilized by the youth and families of the Lutheran Church Synods in Ohio, traffic through the camp should be minimal. This means that we rarely have the dogs on a leash or line. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of traffic. Sometimes I can ignore it because it's either staff or a former staff. But Saturday was one of those days that I could not ignore a big white 4x4 with the confederate flag flying from its rear bumper speeding down our lane. Our house literally has a driveway that is a half a mile long. This year the Camp posted brand new reflective signs stating private drive, no through traffic, and no trespassing. Kind of hard to miss, especially when you have your brights on, but I digress... This truck came speeding down the back lane with its brights on, nearly hitting me and our dogs. My blessing is that out driveway is so long, and has a big S curve in it so I saw the truck coming.

As soon as the truck went by I handed off the dogs to Casey and jumped into the jeep to pursue the now intruders. I drove past the barn and saw a vehicle off to the road that spurs off to the right to a group of cabins called 'Inter-Hill' at camp. When I caught up with the vehicle I realized that it was not the same vehicle that went by the house, but a counselor that had just returned from cedar point as well. I asked him if he had seen the truck and he said no. So I proceeded to follow the route out of camp looking out for this mystery vehicle that had sped by our house. Getting up to the main entrance of the camp.... no confederate flag waving trucks in sight. So just on a whim I decided to go out to the state route which is less than a quarter mile from the camps entrance. Sitting across the road is a vehicle with it's lights on, so while stopping a the stop sign I check it out, seems like a car. Since I'm at the intersection I decided to turn left onto the state route so I could turn around in a parking lot down the street and drive through camp again in case the truck turned off somewhere and I could corner them. After turning around and head back into camp I realize that the vehicle parked across the street from where I stopped to enter the state route was a Sheriff Deputy on road patrol. I decided to stop and ask him if he has seen the vehicle that tore up the road past my house and through camp. He said that he's been there just a few minutes and hadn't seen any such vehicle. Kind of disappointed I start to get back into my car and get home.

Right about now a vehicle is driving down the road from the north towards us so I decide that since i'm turning left and since there is a sheriff sitting next to me I'd let this vehicle pass instead of cutting them off. ZOOM! Past us roars the truck that I was looking for, and that the sheriff was now on the alert for, with one headlight no less. As if on cue the sheriff pulls out after the truck, and with less than an inkling of hesitation I pulled off to follow so that I could identify positively that this is the vehicle that I was looking for.

The Sheriff lights up the vehicle and pulls them over, and farther back I pulled off to the side of the road in a driveway to watch. The story that the deputy relayed to me made little sense. Allegedly the truck was being chased and the occupants thought that they could ditch the chasing vehicle by driving through the camp that they didn't know existed, or was private property. Apparently reflective white signs are hard to read when you're driving fast on a severely washed out road at night. The vehicle also allegedly belonged not to the driver, but to the 15 year old passengers step father. Before relaying this all to me the deputy warned the occupants that any further complaints about them from the Camp would result in citations for criminal trespassing. I'm happy that these kids were caught, and that maybe they'll spread the word that we're serious about preventing trespassers at camp. For once everything worked out well.