WINONA, Minn. – The caller on the police line sounded scandalized: A man was masturbating next door in his backyard. Not being the busiest of afternoons, police went straight away to the 950 block of West Howard Street. Too late. Nobody was in the backyard. Police rang the doorbell and explained about the call. “Yes,” the gentleman said: It was me. But it’s my backyard, he said. Private poverty, you know. The officers explained that he nonetheless had been in public view. The gentleman promised that he wouldn’t do it anymore out there. Case closed.
