SHAKOPEE, Minn. — What constitutes art is truly in the eye of the beholder and apparently... so is the definition of fun in the wake of a significant Minnesota snowstorm.
Twin Cities resident Howard Bazinet and his fiancee were on their way to dinner Wednesday night- probably treating themselves after a day of digging out - when they rolled up to a stoplight and saw something you normally don't see every day.
"We pulled up next to the guy wearing skis at Dean Lakes Pkwy and Mystic Lake road," Bazinet explained to KARE 11. "He looks over at my fiancee and gives her a thumbs up! Then the light turned green and off they went!"
Bazinet says a Jeep with a tow rope tied to it pulled the snowy stunt dude as he slalomed away, right down the middle of the busy thoroughfare. Howard says they tried to take a video but it was too dark. A still image the couple did manage to grab was used in a Facebook post that subsequently exploded, with thousands of shares and hundreds of comments from folks reliving memories of childhood storms and wacky snow antics.
"A legend was born," wrote Cole Bielefeldt.
"Lol, that's crazy! Totally Minnesota," wrote Taylor Mathiason.
"Reasons women live longer," reasoned Ash Be.
"I thought it was very cool and it reminded me of when I was young in South Minneapolis," Bazinet explained. "We used to hitch behind cars and buses but this took it to a whole new level. Good thing he was wearing a helmet at least!"
Shakopee Police did not think it was all that funny, using their own Facebook account to frown on the extreme winter activity.
"We didn’t think we’d have to post something like this, but here we are," read the post, with a bright red "NO" slash through Howard's picture. Underneath that is a picture of someone skiing on an actual mountain with a green check of approval.
While a couple of people supported the police in saying the activity was dangerous, most took the department to task for not having a sense of humor.
"Do your job at getting actual criminals and stop worrying about us having fun!!," said one person, summing up the general sentiment expressed in more than 1,500 posts.
"The fact that you wasted tax dollars posting this picture is a FAR bigger problem than a couple of people out having some relatively harmless fun!" said another.
"This driver was never cited," Shakopee Police responded to the post. "But I think we can both agree that doing this in a busy intersection and when it’s dark out isn’t the smartest."
The department added that maybe wearing a reflective coat would have made the stunt a touch safer.
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