(MN) Gopher Hunt Prompts SWAT alert

[mpthole]

Gopher Hunt Prompts SWAT alert

WASECA, Minn. - A police search for a gunman that involved high-tech helicopters, evacuations and SWAT teams ended Tuesday night with a man who, it turns out, was only hunting gophers.

At one point Tuesday, authorities evacuated people from their homes along Highway 13 south of Waseca in southern Minnesota as they searched for the shooter, who they thought had fired randomly across the highway.

Officials brought in a State Patrol helicopter with an infrared camera. Search teams closed a portion of the highway and planned to use the heat-sensing equipment after dark to search wooded areas.

The man who fired the shots Tuesday afternoon ran an errand in town, then returned home Tuesday evening. He was reportedly surprised by all the commotion.

Highway 13 was reopened and residents returned to their homes. No one was injured. Authorities said no charges will be filed.

Sheesh... sounds like they just wanted to try out some of their new toys.

**edited** to add the bold text above and ask... How many of you would be willing to be evacuated because their might be a gunman running around? Cripes... at about any given time of day in the (big) city there are shots fired somewhere. You don't see them evacuating people.

 

[Dave P]

So some blissninny hears shots as she is driving down the road in the country, and proceeds to call in the terrorist hunters?!?!?

God help us!

 

[H Romberg]

Same kind of thing happened to me for target shooting. You stop to re-load, and hear that voice: "Ya'll wanna step away from the rifles for a minute? " Needless to say, no charges were filed, and the deputies (6 of them came. It must've been a slow day) just asked if we could give them a heads up before the next range day. Gotta love new suburbs in rural areas. City folk just don't understand that it's perfectly reasonable to dump a few boxes of 7.62 into the hillside for fun once in a while. Bump firing a mini-30 at a row of apples on a fence 25 yards away is actually a challenging thing to do.

 

[mohican]

the ground hog hunter is just lucky that he's not held incommunicado as an "enemy combatent". It's the Patriot Act, you know.

My namesake commented about 10 years ago that was the problem with "city folk" moving to the country. They heard a gunshot and instantly call 911, instead of thinking that it might be a coon hunter, a farmer dispatching an animal, etc.

 

[Ol' Badger]

I use to shoot at turtles and snakes in a lake in Westren Fairfax Co. Before it got built up with homes. Some jogger saw me and called the Cops. I walked around the corner of the lake and their were two Police Officers looking at me. I had S&W K22 in my back pocket. I immeditaly pointed to the other side of the lake and said to the Cops that theres a guy shooting at stuff over on the other side. They asked what does he look like and I told'em a white guy white T-Shirt and they took right off. I left the area asap and didnt come back for the whole summer!