Idahoans Firing Back At Icy Trees

Call it extreme cabin fever.

There were two reports of people shooting into trees near Honeysuckle Beach on Tuesday, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.

And there were unsubstantiated rumors that a utility was advising that discharging a firearm up into the branches would help dislodge ice and snow.

That’s poor advice, sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. “It doesn’t take out the ice. And the bullets do come down.”

It’s illegal to discharge firearms in the Coeur d’Alene city limits. And Washington Water Power said it’s not something it ever would tell people to do.

“That would not be a safe practice, especially around live power lines,” said Jay Hopkins, a WWP spokesman.

The weather also seems to be prompting a few burglaries - some charitable, most not. One woman reported prying the lock off of an absent neighbor’s cold trailer Monday on Sullivan Road.

She wanted to rescue a cat that was without food and water. Once inside, the woman also found goldfish in a 3-foot by 3-foot aquarium with all but 1 inch of the water solidified into an ice cube.

The rescuer pulled the fish tank into the front yard, chiseled down to the fish with her crowbar, put them in her jacket pocket and went home, according to the sheriff’s department.

She managed to revive the fish in her own heated tank.

In Coeur d’Alene, a man reported someone attempted to break into his travel trailer with a wine bottle Saturday. The wine bottle was found inside the trailer, just beyond a broken window.

The deadbolt also was broken off the trailer door during the same incident, Coeur d’Alene police said. But because the door was frozen shut from the ice storm, the burglar was unable to get inside the trailer.

, DataTimes MEMO: IDAHO HEADLINE: People reported firing into trees