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Mystery Of Barking Dog

    Just before the break of day about 4 a.m. on a warm spring morning, May 17, 1951, I was suddenly awakened by the frantic barking of our faithful watch dog, “Pal.” I jumped out of bed and rushed to the open window to see what the disturbance was all about. My first thought was that the cattle had broken out of the feedlot but my guess was not correct. I could see nothing, so my husband went downstairs and checked around the barnyard but found nothing amiss. By this time the dog had quieted down so we went back to bed and tried to sleep another hour but to no avail. We knew something had to be wrong or Pal would not have put up such a fuss. I'll admit it gave me a feeling of apprehension and cold chills ran down my spine.

     Work progressed as usual that day. It was corn planting time and about 5 p.m. Floyd came home from the field to feed the cattle and hogs. He had finished planting in the field north of the house and since it looked rainy, he decided to go back out and harrow the field to keep it from washing. While he did this, I proceeded to finish the chores which included milking the cows and separating the milk, which was all done in the barn.

     By the time Floyd had finished harrowing and we had eaten supper it was dark. I was washing the dishes when all of a sudden the dog began barking frantically again as he did that morning except in a different direction. Again we failed to see anything wrong, but in a short time our telephone rang. It was Arthur Ibsen, our neighbor to the north, saying Floyd should come right over, someone had stolen their pick-up truck. He went over and I locked myself in the house, not knowing what to expect next. The sheriff was summoned and the men went to Clarence hoping to perhaps pick up the trail of the thief. About an hour later they learned that someone had seen Ibsen's pick-up go west through Clarence. The law officers took chase and caught up with him close to Mechanicsville where he was apprehended. He was taken to Cedar Rapids and jailed. He had driven east to DeWitt, turned around and backtracked through Clarence. It turned out that the thief was an escaped convict from the Nebraska state prison. Cedar County authorities had been trying to capture him for some days but he was too clever and always managed to evade them till now. We learned that he was wanted for six counts of car theft and robbery previous to this one.

     This escapade led us to believe that he could have been the reason for our dog's strange behavior. The next morning we began looking around and found the evidence we needed to confirm our suspicions.

     As we looked around our buildings and grounds, we pieced together the story. First the dog had barked to the south of the farmstead by the garage. Here on the fence we found a piece of blue denim from his overall which he tore as he hurried over the barbed wire to get away from the dog. In the cattleshed we found an apple core, so we proceeded to the haymow. In the corner we found the bales of hay had been rearranged to form a hiding place and inside we found an empty pineapple can and some food wrappers. Here he hid all day.

     That morning I received a telephone call from Mrs Dewey Sawyer saying she had heard about the convict having been at our place and wondered if we had found a basket belonging to her. She had received it from her mother and treasured it and if we found it she would like to have it back. He had been at their home and helped himself to food which he brought with him to our place. . . .

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. . . Sure enough, when we searched some more we found it hanging at the very top of the ladder at the tip of our haymow door. It still contained silverware and a few other items. From this vantage point he had watched till Floyd came home from the field and after dark he came down and started for Ibsen's place. Coming down onto the ground enabled our dog to pick up his scent again and this is when he barked frantically again after supper. The convict hurried over to Ibsens and stole their pick up, which was parked on the barnyard, and quickly made his getaway.

     This is an experience I shall never forget and needless to say, had I known that an escaped convict was hiding in our mow, while I was milking, I never would have gotten those cows milked and chores finished. It taught us a good lesson never-the-less, to always lock our doors when we leave the house and take the keys out of the cars. Had it not been for our alert dog, he probably would have stolen our car.

              Mrs Floyd (Tillie Brendes) Hansen