CARLISLE, Pa. -- A plucky newspaper carrier and her father used a rubber raft to reach flooded subscribers -- and both wound up in trouble with the law.
Betsey Patrick, a carrier for The Patriot-News of Harrisburg, delighted six stranded subscribers along the rain-swollen Conodoguinet Creek on Sunday when she and her father floated down in the raft.
"The people were so excited," Patrick said Monday. "They couldn't leave their houses. It made their day."
But police and a state Fish and Boat Commission officer weren't amused, and cited her father, Rick Patrick, for negligent operation of a water craft. Betsey Patrick said she was arrested for disorderly conduct after arguing about the $220 citation and handcuffed in front of her 2-year-old daughter.
Patrick said she will fight the charge.
"There was no problem with what we did," she said. "We both had life vests on. We had signaling whistles."
A Patriot-News carrier since 2001, Patrick said she took to the raft because she didn't want the remnants of Hurricane Ivan to mar her perfect delivery record.
Police involved in the case could not be reached for comment, but Roger Kohr, spokesman for the Cumberland County Office of Emergency Preparedness, said officials barred access to many flooded areas.
"We need people to use common sense," Kohr said. "They're putting themselves in peril, and they're putting the people who would have to go in and rescue them in peril."
Danny Diego, the Patriot-News' circulation director, said that because carriers are independent contractors and not employees, the company would not help her fight the charge.
But he praised Patrick's gumption just the same.
"I believe she was demonstrating her commitment to excellent customer service," Diego said.
So she's mad because she went into a restricted area and got fined?
She isn't going to win the case... and the way that article makes it sound is she had her 2 year old daughter on a raft in a restricted flooded area? Should call CPS too.
Stragi wrote:So she's mad because she went into a restricted area and got fined?
She isn't going to win the case... and the way that article makes it sound is she had her 2 year old daughter on a raft in a restricted flooded area? Should call CPS too.
The article says it was her and her father in the raft. I'm guessing if a 2 year old had been in the raft also it would have been stated.
The police spokesman didn't actually say they were in a restricted area, he merely stated that there were restricted areas, and the official charge doesn't seem to reflect that assumption, either.
Makora
Too often it seems it is the peaceful and innocent who are slaughtered. In this a lesson may be found that it may not be prudential to be either too peaceful or too innocent. One does not survive with wolves by becoming a sheep.
The article states that the woman and father were in the raft and delivering. It said nothing about the 2 year old being in the raft. It said that the mother was arrested in front of the 2 year old.
