The Lake County Sheriff's Department was called to the north side of Lake Madison late Friday in response to an emergency call dealing with a pickup having partially fallen through lake ice.
Dispatch received the emergency call at 5:43 p.m. from a location near 6217 N. Lakeside Dr. Alex Friest, 26, of Harrisburg told authorities that his pickup had halfway fallen through the ice on Lake Madison. Friest also said that no one was in the vehicle.
Deputy Charlie Pulford went to the scene and found Alex Friest and Doug Friest, 65, of Harrisburg with a 2012 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup partially submerged in the lake. The two men had driven from King's Point to 6217 N. Lakeside Dr. and parked the pickup about 50 feet from the shore. They left the pickup to look at a tree on the shore that they were asked to remove from the property.
While outside of the vehicle, the men heard noises on the ice and returned to find that their pickup had broken through the surface.
A tow truck from Steve's Tire & Service of Chester arrived at 6:20 p.m. to remove the Dodge, but the wrecker's winch broke about 20 minutes later trying to move the vehicle. STS personnel returned at about 7:40 p.m. with a second flatbed tow truck. The Dodge pickup was extracted from the lake at about 8:30 p.m.
Pulford reported that the pickup had suffered significant damage to its engine compartment and in its interior, water had risen past the center console.
Lake County Search and Rescue was also called to the accident scene.
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