It was 30 days ago that a Chevy Suburban first fell through the ice on Pike Lake in Hatley. Saturday, that SUV was pulled safely to shore. Just before the DNR started tacking on thousands of dollars in possible penalties.
It took Clinton Schacht four days, a couple of chainsaw chains and a whole lot of man power to get his Suburban to shore. The process started Wednesday when a diver dove down and attached chains to the sunken SUV. The diver also inflated a balloon under the truck to make it easier to pull. Then, the real work began. Schacht and his family had to saw away 18 inches of ice to lay cable that would eventually be attached to a tow truck. But before they could tow the truck to land, Schacht had to cut a Suburban sized hole in the ice. After hours of sawing, pulling and praying the SUV surfaced.
Kathy Trzebiatwoski lives a quarter mile away from the lake. She's been monitoring Schacht's progress for the last few days and was there when he finally pulled his SUV out of the water.
"Actually it came out quite slick. They did a good job. I feel really sorry for them, how it happened," Trzebiatwoski told NewsChannel 7.
Schacht said the whole process only cost him about $1,500 because he did the work himself. He added that if he would have hired a professional it would have cost twice as much.
Now that the SUV is out of the water, Schacht plans to rebuild the engine and scrap pretty much everything else.
