A Peterborough ice fisher says his daughter was traumatized by a woman who drove onto Halfmoon Pond Sunday morning, and caused more than $500 in damage to his ice fishing equipment. (Courtesy)
HANCOCK — A Peterborough ice fisherman says his daughter was traumatized by a woman who drove her car onto Halfmoon Pond on Sunday morning and caused more than $500 in damage to his ice fishing equipment.
James Desrosiers said a $400 auger and three $45 tip-ups were damaged by the driver, who was later arrested by Hancock police.
Hancock police said Bonnie Lapointe, 47, of Hancock was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and disobeying an officer.
According to Hancock police, Lapointe was driving a 2011 Honda CR-Z.
Desrosiers said he ice fishes every weekend that he can through the winter and that he was out on Halfmoon Pond Sunday with his 20-year-old son, Collin Desrosiers, and his 11-year-old daughter, Maddy Desrosiers.
Desrosiers said Tuesday that when he first noticed the car drive onto the ice he thought it was odd since it didn’t use the boat launch like most vehicles do during the winter, but instead just came through the woods.
“I thought it was just a teenager out there doing doughnuts. Not that we usually see teenagers out there, but it was a teenager thing to do,” Desrosiers said.
Then the car knocked over some of his tip-ups, he said.
“I opened the door to the bob house and I yelled,” he said. “I think I yelled, ‘Hey!’ ”
“She drove at the bob house and at that point she drove right at me and I jumped out of the way and she flipped me up,” Desrosiers said. “Now I’m mad. I’m chasing her across the ice. That probably wasn’t a smart move. … I was really just trying to get her to stop to let her know that she owes me some money for what she did.”
Collin Desrosiers took Maddy off the ice toward the trees, Desrosiers said.
“He takes her over the shoreline thinking that she’s not going to drive into a tree after them,” he said.
Desrosiers said the woman kept driving by him and flipping him off while also yelling obscenities at him.
Desrosiers called 911 because of the damage she was causing to his equipment, prompting her to drive away.
Hancock police said in a news release that an officer responded to Halfmoon Pond on Sunday around 10:30 a.m. for a report of a verbal altercation.
When the officer arrived the Honda was gone, but it was later stopped in Harrisville.
According to Hancock police, Lapointe was stopped by police and identified, but then “drove off from the stop and the officer pursued the vehicle at a speed that was not in great excess of the speed limit.”
While disobeying the directive to stop, Lapointe threw unrelated items from the Honda.
Disregarding the intent to stop her for more than a mile, she eventually stopped again on Jaquith Road in Harrisville near the Hancock town line.
She was taken into custody at that time and was charged with criminal mischief and disobeying an officer.
Hancock police said Greenfield police responded to assist and that the incident remains under investigation.
Looking on the bright side, Desrosiers said he and his family have a fishing story they will remember for the rest of their lives, but he said he is concerned about his daughter’s reaction. Maddy, he said, had been ice fishing every weekend with him and while he plans to go out again this weekend he is not sure Maddy will.
“My youngest daughter, she’s just bawling; she doesn’t want to go out ice fishing anymore,” Desrosiers said. “It’s something that she loves to do. She is really traumatized about this.”
