Former local deputy recalls the time a man sent his patrol car into Rigby Lake

RIGBY — A former Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputy is sharing details about the night his patrol car went into Rigby Lake, also known as the Jefferson County Lake, while investigating a “kegger party” in 1977.

The story was shared on EastIdahoNews.com in our weekly Looking Back column, which looks back on what life was like during certain time periods in east Idaho history.

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Terrall Hanson on patrol duty

Terrall Hanson started his law enforcement career as a city patrolman in Ririe and was there for 18 months before being hired by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in July 1974.

In December 1976, Hanson became the resident officer on the west side of the county where he covered the area where Roberts, Mud Lake and Hamer are located.

“But one weekend a month, each officer — the sheriff’s office only consisted of a sheriff and four deputies at that time — took a weekend and worked,” Hanson explained. “It was one of those weekends I was over (in Rigby) from Mud Lake (when the incident happened).”

The incident involving Hanson’s patrol car going into the lake took place on Aug. 12, 1977, according to the Idaho Falls Post Register.

“At that particular time, (the lake) was a gravel pit with a lot of trees. Of course the access wasn’t the best going out there,” Hanson explained. “(The county) decided they’d quit using it for a gravel pit, and water would get in there out of the dry bed and sub up. People would go out there but the county owned it, so that became a liability.”

Signs were posted that read “County property, no trespassing, no parties and no swimming” but officers still checked the area often because Hanson pointed out, back then, “keg parties” were “the big thing.”

“I called in to dispatch (that Friday night) and told them I was going to be out to the Rigby Lake and look and see (if anything was going on),” Hanson recalls. “I drive around and there’s a fire and there’s cars parked all over back there. … I think they estimated close to 100 people back there at this keg party.”

Discovering the keg party

Hanson remembers telling the dispatcher he could see there was a large number of people at this party. He was going to check ID’s and see if those at the party would disperse and leave.

“I pulled up and let her (dispatch) know I was getting out of the car. I knew I was going to have to walk about 100 yards to get over to the fire where everybody was gathered around,” he stated. “I left the car running … and I shined the spotlight over by the campfire. I left the car running because I had separate keys on my belt that I could unlock the door and get back in.”

Once he got over to where people were, he began checking ID’s and trying to find out who was in charge of the party.

In the midst of the chaos due to kids “running like crazy” trying to get out of there because they were underage, Hanson realized his spotlight on his patrol car went out.

“I thought somebody broke the spotlight,” he said.

Hanson walked over to where his car was parked to see what was going on with the spotlight, and to his surprise, his car was gone.

“I thought, ‘Oh man. Now here I am with all these kids partying drunk. I’m all by myself, and I’m the adversary,'” Hanson said.

Hanson’s car takes a dive

At first, Hanson thought someone stole his car. Then, he looked down toward the water-filled gravel pit and saw a guy who was running around with his shirt off, who jumped into the lake. He wasn’t the one responsible for landing the car in the water, according to Hanson. Instead, he was concerned someone was in the car.

“I ran over there to see what was up with that and you can see my spotlight shining up through the water from the bottom of the lake,” Hanson remembers seeing. “You can see the headlights and they are starting to grow dimmer.”

He continued, “Here I am, no radio. I got nothing. All I got is my sidearm and a pair of handcuffs, and about 80 kids left that are all laughing and going wild.”

Hanson found someone broke the window out of his car and put the vehicle in gear, which caused it to drive right down the embankment into the lake.

He had his radio equipment, a shotgun, a CB radio and other miscellaneous equipment inside his patrol car. With no way to contact dispatch, he wasn’t sure what would happen next. Reports say an individual who was at the party went to the sheriff’s office and told them what was going on.

It wasn’t long before Hanson heard a siren and saw overhead police lights making their way to the lake. A Rigby City Police unit arrived followed by several other units from the surrounding areas, according to a newspaper clipping Hanson saved.

“We detained as many as possible. We took names. We had people opening their trunks to see if we could find any wet clothing or any kind of evidence,” he mentioned.

Suspect found

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office arrested Ronald Hawker, 33, of Grant, in connection with the submersion of the car. He was charged with grand larceny and the destruction of public property.

A newspaper clipping Hanson has held onto over the years explains that Hawker’s bond was originally set at $10,000 but was reduced to $1,000. The suspect was free on bond.

“They reduced the bond because he was not a flight risk,” Hanson said. “If I remember right, he plead on some kind of reduced charge, a plea bargain type thing.”

As for the car, scuba divers with the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office were called to search for the vehicle, which was found under 30 feet of water, the Post Register reported.

A wild weekend

That Friday night car plunge incident was the start of a weekend that Hanson would never forget. The sheriff told him to use the chief deputy’s car for the rest of the weekend since he didn’t have a vehicle.

But on Saturday night, he got a call that a pick-up went in a canal. Once he got to the scene, he saw another pick-up was trying to pull the truck out of the canal. The chain had about six feet of slack and Hanson was only about four-feet behind.

“He put that in reverse and came backing up with his tires spinning and rammed right into the front of the other police car,” Hanson said. “It totaled the chief deputy’s car.”

Hanson called the sheriff around 3 a.m. and told him what happened.

“There was a long pause,” Hanson recalls. “I said, ‘What do you want me to do for a car? He said, ‘We’re kind of starting to get shy on them now.'”

The next morning, Bob Brown who owned Bob Brown Chevrolet showed up at the sheriff’s office in a 1971 Chevrolet Caprice Classic. The sheriff had called Brown to see if he had anything on his lot that could be used as a police car.

For the next roughly six months, Hanson drove that car around until the sheriff’s office ordered him a new car.

“I don’t know if anybody has ever totaled two cars in one weekend (in Jefferson County) since,” Hanson said as he let out a chuckle.