BURNETT COUNTY
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2015 VOL. 53 NO. 44 www.burnettcountysentinel.com $1.00
ARREST WARRANTS: Over 1,000 active warrants in county. P2
Alleged thieves in custody
TODD BECKMANN | SENTINEL
Celebrating 239 years
GRANTSBURG—”A lucky break.” It’s how Jeff Schinzing, Grantsburg Police Chief, looks at the capture of the two thieves suspected in the break-in of the Wood River Pharmacy in Grantsburg in the early morning hours of June 29. “When the police search your vehicle and they find items reported stolen from the Wood River Pharmacy, it kind of makes you think ‘Maybe they had something to do with it,’” he pointed out. Justin Ladd, 32, and Sirae Kettula, 34, permanent address unknown, were pulled over in Brooklyn Park, Minn., for an unrelated traffic stop. The police ended up searching the vehicle, discovered the stolen goods and took the pair into custody. “We have not been able to talk with them yet,” Schinzing reported. “If they don’t fight extradition, they could be here by the end of the week.” By Todd Beckmann.
Property owners on Viola Lake were out in force Saturday to honor America’s birthday with their annual Fourth of July Boat Parade. More Fourth of July photos on Pages 10 and 20.
A fleeting season BY TODD BECKMANN SENTINEL
SHELL LAKE—Sure, those plump, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth strawberries are only available for a few weeks but residents and visitors alike flock to the Lindy’s Berries roadside stands each summer to get their fill. In its 36th season, Lindy’s Berries began in 1979. “My dad (Phil Lindeman) was an ag teacher and was always looking for a way to get us kids to work so we could put away money for college,” Jennifer Kunselman, who with husband Scott runs the business, explained. The farm actually started with raspberries but in the 1980s, the Lindeman’s added strawberries and the rest, as they say, is history. “In the mid-1990s we started working with the folks and then we officially took over the business in 2005,” Kunselman said. On any given day in June or early July, there are as many as 50 employees of Lindy’s BerSEE STRAWBERRIES, PAGE 7
Is a narcotic K9 the answer? BY TODD BECKMANN SENTINEL
SIREN—Admittedly in the infancy stages of building a narcotics program, Sheriff Ron Wilhelm brought two guests to July’s public safety meeting. “A narcotics dog is one of the tools we are looking at in building a program of our own,” he pointed out. To that end, the sheriff invited Polk County Deputy Nick Bryant and his K9 Kaiser to Thursday’s meeting to explain some initial groundwork. “I’ve been a K9 handler for seven years,” Bryant noted. “Our German Shepard is a dual purpose canine — he does patrol and narcotics.” He said since drugs are very prevalent in this part of the state, the dog is a narcotics dog about 80 percent of the time. “The nose is why we use the dog,” Bryant explained. “The shepard has about 25 million scent recep-
tors compared to about five million for a human being.” Plus, a dog’s brain is also specialized for identifying scents — the percentage of the dog’s brain which is devoted to analyzing smells is actually 40 times larger than that of a human. Bryant said the dog is trained to detect marijuana, cocaine, heroin, ecstacy and methamphetamine. “It really cuts down our man hours,” he shared. “Having a K9 is a very significant asset.” Wilhelm agreed. “Because property crimes and narcotics go hand-in-hand, a good narcotics program will bring a decrease in other crimes,” he said. Wilhelm said he is in the early stages of building a narcotics program. “What I’d like to do is mirror the program they have in St. Croix County,” he stated. “They have three narcotics dogs and everything is donated — there’s no taxTODD BECKMANN | SENTINEL
SEE NARCOTICS, PAGE 6
Polk County deputy Nick Bryant with Kaiser.
Amery | Clear Lake | Luck | Turtle Lake
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