Drivers question if shooter is taking out windows on Hwy 93

POLSON – Suspicious circumstances brought two drivers in the Rocky Point Road area together after they suffered car window damage within an hour of each other Sept. 6.

The first driver, an out-of-state-visitor traveling in a restored red 1951 Ferrari, was eastbound on Highway 93 when his driver’s side window shattered.

Less than an hour later, Polson resident Joan Clayson, who was traveling westbound on 93, suffered front windshield damage.

“I was going up to Polson,” Clayson said about the incident.  “I noticed a red sports car was on the side of the road and I wondered what was going on.”

Clayson drove past the sports car, completed her errands in about 20 minutes and headed home.

“I passed the car that was still there, and just around that (corner) of Rocky Point and 93 my car was struck,” Clayson said.

Though her first thought was that recent the chip-sealing project or a passing truck may have caused a rock to hit her windshield, Clayson realized no trucks were in the area and she was not in a vulnerable chip seal location.

“I proceeded down the road but I felt that something just wasn’t right so I went back to the place where the red car was parked,” she said.

Clayson learned that the Ferrari driver, who was on his way to meet friends in Polson, had the same kind of experience she did.

Her next stop was to report the incidents to law enforcement.

“(A Lake County Sheriff’s deputy) took a thorough report,” Clayson said.

But Clayson wasn’t done trying to help solve the mystery of who or what broke the two windows.

“If it’s youngsters, perhaps they are misguided or frustrated,” she said. “It may be this now but they could end up doing very, very serious things later.”

Clayson’s desire is to intervene with troubled kids now to help save them from a life of crime later.

“(Either driver) could have been seriously hurt,” she said.

Assuming that kids were responsible, Clayson said she wants them to know they will be caught.

“This is serious stuff,” Clayson said. “They need to know that this is being taken seriously by the police department.”

Lake County Sheriff’s Department Undersheriff Dan Yonkin said that if someone was shooting at windows, the Sheriff’s department will find them.

Early Sept. 8, she contacted Polson Unified School District bus services and learned that busses deliver area middle and high school students to area campuses.

“I’m just trying to put two and two together,” she said.

Yonkin said the incident is suspicious but that he cannot disclose any further details about the incident.

If anyone has additional information or sees someone running away from a recently broken window,  Yonkin asked that they call (406) 883-7309.