Dirt bike kids rip up Westfield golf course

WINONA, Minn. – Police chased and caught two teenagers, 17 and 15, who had been ripping up the Westview municipal golf course on their motorized dirt bikes. This was about 7 p.m. – the day after similar vandalism elsewhere on the nine-hole course. The original damage,from the night before, was reported to in police about 10 a.m. Police were called back about 7 p.m. that two teens, dressed all in black, were driving their dirtbikes all over the course.

Wild pursuit across greens

An officer arrived and found two riders at Hole 2, near Second and Bierce streets. The officer turned on his emergency lights and siren. The bikers took off from the northeast section of the golf course all the way to the southwest  side and then onto Fifth Street. The officer pursued them, slightly disadvantaged by staying on cart paths so as to not to damage to the greens further. The officer eventually stopped one teen whose bike was having mechanical issues.  The youth was located by another officer after he drove his bike back across Fifth, dumped it, and ran into a backyard on foot.  He was apprehended in the 1700 block of West Fifth

Finale

Both bikes were Coleman CT100Us with 212cc motors, police said.  They were seized as evidence.  Both boys were turned over to their parents. The charges

> Fleeing in motor vehicles.

> Criminal damage to property.

The course was expected to reopen in the afternoon. The worst damage was ruts and a few burn-outs, said Brian Paulson, the course pro. The cost of restoring the greens was not determined immediately. Damage from the first night, however, was pegged at $500.

Westfield. Bounded by West Fifth and Third Streets on the south, Bierce Street on the east, the Canadian Pacific mainline on the north, the Orrin and Junction streets intersection and the stub of Greenview View Court on the southwest, and backyards of houses on Fairfax Street on the west.