There goes the neighborhood

We've had the strangest news story unfold around here over the past several days. If it wasn't actually happening, I'd think I was watching CSI-Wisconsin Rapids. Seriously. It is that bizarre.

It started out Saturday when a family reported their 23-year-old son never made it home after the fireworks the night before. He had been drinking so they didn't know if he became disoriented and passed out in the woods somewhere or, worse, the Wisconsin River. Hundreds of volunteers joined emergency personnel in the searching for 3 days. To no avail. The search was called off Tuesday morning. But things really changed later that day.

They changed when a different man, a 21-year-old reported missing earlier Tuesday, showed up on someone's porch -- naked, bloodied and bound in chains -- and told them to call the police.

The police say a 46-year-old man posed as a police officer, handcuffed and kidnapped both of these young men, stripped, beat and assaulted them while he had them chained in his basement and garage. Allegedly. Since I no longer work for the newspaper, I am free to pass judgment and say, "what a sicko!"

This is sad, really. The victims, who are the ages of some of my nephews, have some serious trauma to deal with. And the community, well, even though a lot of crap goes on behind closed doors that we don't hear about, the community is in shock that something like this could happen in our safe little town. There's a major freakout factor and some paranoia, naturally. How safe are we?

It only scares me because, as a parent, once again I am faced with the cold, hard truth that we can't always be there to protect our children. All we can do is pray God takes over in that department when they are more than arm's length away. I believe He will. In the meantime, I'll hug the stuffing out of Carter when I've got him. I don't care how embarrassed it makes him.

By the way, you can read the stories at the Daily Tribune Web site.