WHITE CO., Ill. - White County Sheriff Doug Maier has issued information about his department's activity from last week, a couple of the incident involving problems with vehicles in one form or another.
The first one, an abandoned vehicle, emerged last Tuesday, February 26, when a deputy responded to a report of a pickup truck being abandoned on County Line Road west of Grayville in the S curves by the Little Wabash River.
The responding officer reported that he knew there was a pickup left in that area a few weeks back when the driver had to leave the truck after it was disabled by backwater.
Th deputy reported the Rick Conner of Rick's Towing in Grayville came to remove the vehicle. Connor told the deputy that he had been in contact with a tow company that does all the towing for the owner, DL Peterson Trust, who had advised Conner that they were going to have him tow the vehicle when the water receded; however, Conner said he'd not heard anything else from them.
The vehicle was removed and taken to Rick's Towing in Grayville after all.
In the separate instance, a Louisville, Kentucky, woman found her vehicle ablaze on the evening of Tuesday, February 26, in the rural Norris City area.
At approximately 8:23 p.m. that night, Deputy Scott Cantrell was dispatched to a van on fire at a rural location on County Road 475E. Upon arrival, Cantrell observed a 2008 Hyundai van parked in the driveway of the residence. The van had been totally destroyed by fire which the fire department had extinguished.
According to the owner, Kara Hussman of Louisville, the van had been mistakenly parked on top of a pile of leaves that were still smoldering (apparently having been set ablaze independently of the van.) The leaves ignited the van, Cantrell reported, and started the fire.