Verbatim, Larry Culp

Larry Culp is the owner of the Old Mill Cafe in Carlsborg and a part-time logger. He also loves working with wood, particularly with pieces that nature has made unique and special. That’s how 18 years ago he found himself in this flap:

_Anyway, it was probably about 9:30 at night. That day I seen a small fir tree on the Olson Road. It came down straight but had a perfect dollar sign in it. I had to have that.

I figured I would just go up there and cut it down. So I got the top off and the limbs and ran out of gas in my chain saw.

I figured I’d just drag it down to the end of the gravel road because there was no one down there. So anyway, I got to Hooker Road. When I got about halfway down Hooker Road, I got out and turned it over. It wouldn’t turn over on its own because of the dollar sign. I was using the blacktop to sand it. And it was starting to look real good.

I finally got to (Highway) 101, the intersection. I proceeded across and there was a hump and the rope pulled off and I left the log across both lanes of the highway.

I didn’t notice it was gone ’til I got to the fire station.

As I was laying rubber to get back, a car bumped into the log. That scared me. By the time I got back there were five or six cars waiting for the log to get out off the way.

A couple guys jumped out to help me get the rope back on it.

A guy and his wife jumped out and started screaming at me. ‘We coulda been killed!’ and ‘We got a big dent in the oil pan!’

I was worried about leaving the scene of the accident but asked if I could just drag it out of the road.

They said OK, so I proceeded to Carlsborg Road and to my house. It’s about a block and a half from the highway. By the time I got back, there were at least four or five sheriff’s deputies there. And other cars had stopped to see what was going on.

One of the officers said he had to measure it, so we walked to my house. ‘How long is it?’ I asked him.

‘Fifty-four feet,’ he said.

I asked him if it was worse if it was longer than shorter. He was cracking up.

So anyway, I asked him what I’d be cited for. He said he didn’t know.

A week later I got a ticket in the mail – $600 for reckless endangerment.

So I had to go to court to talk to the judge. I had to pay $611 to take the dent out of the guy’s oil pan.

They wanted me to do a year in jail, but the judge suspended 363 of them. So I ended up with two days in jail. I didn’t eat anything. When the other inmates asked, I told them it was self-punishment.

I never felt so good as when I got out of there.

A week later, I get a bill for a chiropractor treatment for the driver of that car to the tune of $4,000. The next one was $8,000 and the next one was $14,000.

I had no idea where that was gonna stop.

So I got a lawyer in P.A. What was I gonna do? My insurance on the truck expired about three days before the thing with the tree.

A couple or three weeks later, I got a bill for $300 from the lawyer and was told it was all cleared up.

As it turns out, the chiropractor was a relative of the guy. _