PUMPKIN PUMPIN'

DIXON, IL -- Police arrested Danny Kerusa, a 27 year old white male, in
the Sanderson Pumpkin patch at 11:38pm Friday.  Kerusa will be charged with lewd
and lacivious behavior, public indecency, and public intoxication at the County
courthouse Monday.

The suspect allegedly stated that as he was passing a pumpkin patch, he decided
to stop.  "You know, a pumpkin is soft and squishy inside, and there was no one
around here for miles.  At least I thought there wasn't." he stated in a phone
interview from the County courthouse jail.  Kerusa went on to state that he
pulled over to the side of the road, picked out a pumpkin that he felt was
appropriate to his purposes, cut a hole in it, and proceeded to satisfy his
alleged "need".

"I guess I was just really into it, you know?" he commented with evident
embarrassment.  In the process, Kerusa apparently failed to notice the Dixon
Municipal police car approaching, and was unaware of his audience until officer
Brenda Taylor approached him.

"It was an unusual situation, that's for sure!" said officer Taylor.

"I walked up to (Kerusa) and he's... just working away at this pumpkin."  Taylor
went on to describe what happened when she approached Kerusa.  "I just went up
and said, 'Excuse me sir, but do you realize that you are screwing a pumpkin?' 
He got real surprised as you'd expect, then looked me straight in the face and
said, "A pumpkin? Damn... is it midnight already?"

Taylor arrested him but said that the suspect accepted his predicament in good
humor.  "I have to give him credit... that was a quick comeback" Taylor said of
the man's comment.  Taylor summed up the event with one statement: "Seven years
I've been patrolling this area -- this was a first!"