U.S. flag stolen from Norton Church
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by LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The United States flag that was dedicated at Norton Lutheran Church last November has been stolen.
Church members reported that the flag had been on the flagpole, flying at half mast, on Saturday, May 13, and by Sunday morning — it was gone.
Tire tracks could be seen where someone drove up to the flagpole, said Randy Valaske, president of the Norton Church Council.
The flag had been flying at half mast the previous week in memory of 29-year-old St. Croix County Sheriff’s Deputy Kaitie Leising, who was shot and killed just outside Glenwood City by a man who had gone in the ditch and was reported to be a drunk driver.
The person who stole the flag obviously has “no values and no scruples,” Valaske said.
“It doesn’t get much lower than that to steal a flag from a church and a cemetery,” he said.
The flag and the flagpole were dedicated last November following a Veterans’ Day dinner at the church.
Valaske, the owner (or in-the-process-of-retiring owner) of Tainter Machine, made the flag pole and donated it and donated the flag as well.
The flag and flag pole are dedicated to the memory of the veterans buried in the Norton Church cemetery and in honor of the veterans from the Colfax area.
“I was pretty disgusted,” Valaske said, when he realized the flag had been stolen.
As of Sunday afternoon, he had not yet reported the theft to the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department but planned to report it Monday morning.
At first, Valaske said, he considered not reporting the theft because he knows the sheriff’s department deputies are already busy.
But then he realized, the stolen flag at Norton might be a useful piece of information for the sheriff’s department if other flags had been stolen in the area or there were other thefts or vandalism.
Valaske said he was not fond of the idea of installing security cameras at the church but that he supposed it might be necessary.
Anyone who may have noticed a vehicle pulled up by the flagpole, or who may have heard someone talking about the stolen flag, is encouraged to contact the Dunn County Sheriff’s Department.
Anyone who has experienced a similar theft in the area — or some other kind of theft — is urged to report the theft to the sheriff’s department as well.
Under Wisconsin state statute 947.07, “Causing violence or breach of the peace by damaging or destroying a U.S. flag … Whoever destroys, damages, or mutilates a flag, or causes a flag to come into contact with urine, feces, or expectoration, with the intent to cause imminent violence or a breach of the peace under circumstances in which the actor knows that his or her conduct is likely to cause violence or a breach of the peace is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor.”
In Wisconsin, felony theft occurs when the value of the property stolen amounts to $2,500 or more, with a maximum possible penalty of twelve and a half years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
According to Wisconsin statute 943.20(3), misdemeanor theft, when the value of the stolen property is less than $2,500, is a Class A misdemeanor, and the penalties are a fine up to $10,000 and/or up to nine months in prison.