DAKOTA, Minn. – A train crew reported highway construction barricade barrels being dropped in the path of their locomotive on the fast double-track mainline. The engine plowed easily through the plastic barrels. There was no derailment nor any injury. It must have been a spectacle for the perpetrators even though perverse and potentially dangerous. Deputies responding to the call from the Canadian Pacific train crew found a large party bonfire. The partiers scattered on foot in all directions as the deputies arrived, leaving beer cans all around. Deputies knocked at the door of a nearby house. A man, age 40, acknowledged that his 20-year-old son had had friends over. Deputies took down the license plate numbers of cars parked all around, probably as the partiers looked on hidden in the night shadows. Authorities planned to check the automobile registrations the next day. Meanwhile, deputies chose not to ticket the 20-year-old party host, at least not immediately. Although underage for boozing, he was in the presence of his adult father, at least kind of. That’s allowed by law.
