What a crappy way to start one’s day

The pickup truck loaded with lumber, stuck in manure in Maine Prairie Township. Below, Matthew Bloomquist made quite a stink at the Stearns County Jail.

By Jean Doran Matua, Editor

A few months ago, old dynamite was found on a piece of land purchased by Brad and Leanne Donnay in Maine Prairie Township. The bomb squad was called in and they detonated it all in place.

The Donnays have been cleaning up the property, and recently had a big auction of hundreds of vehicles and vehicle parts. About three weeks ago, someone had accessed the property and stole some scrap metal and other items. Brad locked the gate after that.

Wednesday morning, at 3 a.m., someone was out there again, this time with a pickup truck. Two men had loaded the truck with lumber from a shed. Rather than cut the gate’s lock with the bolt-cutters they had, they decided to drive around the gate, in the bean field. Little did they know that they drove right into a manure pile. And not just any pile of manure: this was confinement steer manure that had been marinating and fermenting, perhaps for months. Ripe, super-stinky manure.

Two Stearns County deputies arrived to find that one of the men had run off, and the other was standing on the side of the road, smoking a cigarette, wearing jean shorts over long underwear and no shoes; they figured the shoes were probably stuck in the manure. He was soaked with manure up to his armpits, with more splashed on his face. The man, Matthew Bloomquist, 29 of Hawick, was patiently waiting for help getting the truck unstuck. This was Tom Konz’s field, and manure. Konz was alerted to someone out there early that morning. He stopped by and told Bloomquist that he’d return with his tractor to get him out, but it might take awhile. Several hours later, Bloomquist was still waiting. The “friend” who claimed he’d purchased the lumber but fled when they got stuck, likely is from a nearby coommunity.

Bloomquist was arrested and taken to Stearns County Jail. He was booked on third-
degree burglary and possession of stolen property. He was released later that day.

On the way to jail, the deputy stopped to hose off some of the manure from the squad car. The next day, Deputy Pogatshnik reported that his windows were still open, and there wasn’t enough Febreeze to get rid of the stench.

The news of this, shared in the Sheriff’s weekly newsletter, is making its way around the world in print and on TV and radio, not to mention the Internet: from local to The Miami Herald, New York Post, New Delhi TV, and beyond.