Not all scary stories
are saved for Halloween!
The hair-raising stories that abound when law enforcement officers get together can chill your bones as much as any Halloween tale you’ve heard. Probably more, because their stories really happened.
Kris Johnson, a deputy in the Goodhue County Sheriff's Four Seasons Patrol, shared some of his experiences at a recent meeting of TRIAD at the Shepherd’s Center in Cannon Falls. This group of citizens and law enforcement representatives get together once a month to express concerns or learn about police work.
Patrolling the waters is part of Kris’ job. One of his stories could be considered a horrible nightmare except it really happened.
The story goes, as I recall it: a guy and his girlfriend were enjoying their personal watercraft (like jet skis) on the Mississippi River just above Lock and Dam #3 near Red Wing. All of a sudden both crafts stopped working and the couple was caught in the current heading toward the dam. No one was around to help.
The guy caught one of the ropes hanging over the falls but his girlfriend didn’t. She disappeared and soon he was so exhausted from the push of the water against him that he let go and was swept over the dam.
This could have been the end of the story.
But in the river just below the dam were a group of fishermen. They saw the two watercraft explode out of the water and then saw the guy near by. They rescued him. But there was no sight of the girl. Unknown to anyone, she had gone over the dam but had gotten lodged under the falls in an air pocket! She was alive but no one knew it. And she couldn’t get word to anyone.
The roar of the falls around her was deafening. It got to the point that she gave up any hope of surviving. She just knew that she couldn’t stand the roaring sound any longer and so she slipped back into the falls to what she thought was certain death.
And this could have been the end of the story too.
But instead she came up in the same party of fishermen who had found her boyfriend! This happy ending is not the usual result of these types of traumas on the river but sure is nice to hear.
Another discussion at the meeting was about the opportunities for drug traffickers to use the river to smuggle illegal products. I was sniffing around the subject and asking about how to hide the stuff and even get rid of it if caught.
I must have gotten a bit too curious with my penetrating questions because I noticed Cannon Falls Assistant Police Chief, Rich Wisniewski, cocking his head and giving me a curious look.
I was just getting information to write a book, I assured him. (Sounded good to me!)
And that’s the end of the story!
. | 
