Property: Reineking, Otto Farm Vandalized
Contact: Allan Wessel

----Source: Recieved from Mrs. Lorraine Allchin, California. No date or paper given.

PRANKSTERS MAKE A BIG JOB OF CLEANING UP THE OTTO REINEKING PLACE, UNDER MORAL PERSUASION.

They Had Made It a Shambles on Halloween Night Seven Attended Clean-up Exercises in Contrite Spirit, Two by Invitation of Sheriff Kutsche.

Nine Halloween pranksters engaged an impromptu "clean-up campaign" last Wednesday at the Otto Reineking farm, six and one half miles northwest of Greenwood, town of Mead. Now everything is peaceful and friendly in that neighborhood of the town of Butler once again.

Seven of the nine attended the cleann-up in contrite spirit. The other two attended upon invitation of Sheriff Ray Kutsche.

It must have been that the spirit of Halloween carried away the revelers, for the list of "pranks" the nine pulled certainly required most of the evening.

And it most certainly required much longer on Wednesday to put everything to rights again.

The Reinekings left their farm Halloween evening, sometime between 8 and 9 o'clock. The attended the birthday celebration of Mrs. Reineking's cousin, Gilbert Abel, at the John Abel farm home.

They returned about midnight, in company with Otto Meinholdt, a brother of Mrs. Reineking, to find their farm closely approximating a shambles.

DID A THOROUGH JOB

Here's what happened:

1. Corn stocks were taken from windrows, were strewn along the drive to the front porch, and were scattered about the porch.

2. Two window screens were removed from the house, one was put under a stack of corn on the porch, in front of the fron door;

3. The house windows were well coated with paraffin;

4. The two windows from which the screens were removed, had been unlatched;

5. The refrigerator had been entered, and a bottle of pop was taken and partially drunk;

6. A farm wagon was pulled into the driveway gate and was left there with four flat tires;

7. The rack from the above wagon was strewn around the farm.;

8. A model A farm truck was backed into the driveway, midway between the road and the buildings, and was left there with the air out of two rear tires;

9. The windows -- all of them -- on the Model A truck were heavily waxed, both inside and out;

10. Part of an old farm wagon was removed from the barn and placed on the driveway beside the truck;

11. A two-wheel trailer was pulled alongside the roadway, abreast of the truck and wagon part, thus effectively completing the roadblock;

AND HERE ARE MORE

12. Armsful of wood were scattered along the driveway to make motorized approach a little more difficult and slower.

13. Milking utensils were taken from the barn and thrown on top of the barn roof;

14. One milking machine bucket was placed atop the Reineking's "goose hut".

15. A second milking machine bucket was placed inside the goose hut;

16. Inside the barn a sackful of potatoes was dumped out in the driveway;

17. Mr. Reineking's "good" raincoat and his jackets were trampled on the driveway.

18. The three milk stoos were turned upside down and the seat survac3s were tramped into the dung and juice in the gutters;\

19. A pail used for washing down cows preparatory to milking was filled with manure;

TWENTY-THREE LISTED

20. The box stall door was opened and the nine pigs contained therein were released to roam on their own (all were recovered later).

21. Both doors of the chicken coop were opened, but it appeared that all 103 chickens remained inside.

22. All windows of the family's 1949 model augomobile were heavily coated with wax, inside and out and

23. A half-pound package of chewing tobacco, left in the car, was torn open and the contents were thorougly scattered inside the car.

There were other more or less minor pranks that were inceidental to giving the farm property a good going-over. The list, to be complete, would go on and on.

The seven who returened to participate actively, and without prompting, did not come back of their own volition. Mr. Reineking had suspicions, he went to one of them and got a confession. The he left word that if the mess was cleaned up and the farm was restored to normal he would be willing to call things square.