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Motorist stuck in snow for 12 hours

Photo submitted by John Kolze This snow plow was a welcome sight for a St. Bonifacius man who got stuck in the snow overnight near Russell.

John Kolze, a regional technician for Sprint, was driving in Coon Creek Township near Russell Thursday evening and found himself stuck in the snow — for 12 hours.

Kolze, who is from St. Bonifacius, said he was driving on gravel roads looking for a Sprint cell site to do equipment upgrades. He was trying to find the best road, one that wasn’t drifted over.

“I should have turned around but instead I went on a different road,” Kolze said. He ended up stuck in a large drift at the intersection of 210 Street and 150th Avenue east of Wood Lake in Coon Creek Township. He called AAA but the tow truck in Marshall was busy getting many motorists out of ditches.

For his job, Kolze drives around Minnesota, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Wisconsin. He said this winter has been one of the worst. He said normally the wind comes from the north or south, but Thursday it came from the north, south, east and west. That made for a lot of blowing snow.

“Some places got rain and some got snow,” he said. “It was pretty windy.”

He called the Lyon County Sheriff’s office and a Sheriff’s Deputy, Tyler Sangren, drove out and parked as close as he dared. Sangren grabbed a large shovel out of his trunk and trudged to Kolze’s vehicle, a Jeep Patriot. By that time, it was after midnight.

Kolze had a smaller shovel and had released the front tires of snow and the deputy shoveled the back tires out, but rocking the vehicle back and forth only caused an icy rut and the Jeep wasn’t going anywhere.

Kolze said he appreciated the officer’s efforts.

“He did what he could,” Kolze said. “He went above and beyond. It makes you feel good knowing someone would go out of their way like that to help people.”

Kolze ended up sitting in his car for a total of 12 hours before he was released from his snowy trap.

A seasoned driver, Kolze had filled up with gas beforehand and he made sure his tailpipe wasn’t blocked when he was stuck in the snow.

“I had my phone and iPad,” he said.

Wanting to stick with his vehicle, Kolze asked Sangren to call and inquire about township road plows and to put his spot first on the list. Kolze was glad to see Allen Benz driving toward him in a tractor and snowblower at 8:30 a.m. Friday.

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