SHOREWOOD, IL — Employees with the Will County Forest Preserve are baffled about the details of Tuesday’s strange discovery — three giant bales of hay were intentionally placed by someone or perhaps several people with super-human strength, along the Hammel Woods’ DuPage River Access. The paved bicycle and walking trail is just north of Black Road.
A reader named Mitch notified Joliet Patch’s editor that the hay bales were blocking the Hammel Woods bike trail, DuPage River Access. While enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery, I came upon this. Not sure if this was the work of pranksters or a disgruntled baler. Either way, it’s a hazard for both those walking and cycling. Total of 3 bails on the trail,” Mitch wrote.
Each of the bales easily could weigh over a ton, which is 2,000 lbs.
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“We are contacting the farmer who has the hay contract to see if he can move the hay bales tomorrow with the tractor he has at the site. If not, we will use our own tractor,” Will County Forest Preserve spokeswoman Cindy Cain responded to Joliet Patch’s editor.
Around 3 p.m., I rode my bicycle from Shorewood to the scene of the crime, or, more likely, the scene of the prank. My reaction? Perhaps this was the work of extraterrestrial beings.
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After returning home, I called Will County Forest Preserve Deputy Police Chief David Barrios and ran my theory by him. Could these three giant hay bales have been moved out of the farm fields and strategically placed along the trail during the middle of the night by life forms from another far away galaxy?
“No comment,” Barrios began to laugh.
Barrios said he cannot ever remember pranksters moving bales of hay on to one of the Forest Preserve’s many trail systems across Will County.
One time, years ago, he said, the Forest Preserve Police discovered that a group of pranksters managed to stack about 10 red-colored wooden picnic tables, one on top of each other. That memorable prank happened in New Lenox at the Hickory Creek Nature Preserve.
Barrios said he strongly doubted that the Will County Forest Preserve’s contracted farmer chose to intentionally put the three bales of hay right in the middle of the walking and bicycle path along the Hammel Woods trail.
Given the size and weight of the bales, Barrios wondered whether a prankster had access to a farmer tractor to lift the bales out of the farmer’s field and drop them in the middle of the trail.
Joliet Patch’s editor counted about 30 bales of hay all scattered across the farm field off in the distance near the DuPage River in Shorewood. And there was a farm tractor parked nearby.
The Hammel Woods trail opens daily at 8 a.m. and stays open until dusk. It is patrolled by the Will County Forest Preserve Police.
As for the working theory why someone — or multiple people — worked under Monday night’s cover of darkness to place the bales of hay along the walking and bicycle pathway, “I could not even tell you,” Barrios responded. “It’s kind of crazy.”
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