By: Erin Olson Neither snow, nor sleet, nor, apparently, floods will stop the dedicated newspaper carrier. But when Betsey Patrick delivered newspapers from a rubber raft to subscribers along her hurricane-flooded route in the Middlesex Township of Carlisle, Pa., earlier this week, she didn't count on receiving a $220 citation and getting arrested.
Patrick and her father were cited for negligent operation of a watercraft. She was then arrested when she argued with officers about the penalty.
"This is not something I would have done," Matt Miller, who wrote a story about the incident for the paper Patrick was delivering, The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, told E&P Thursday. "But I think they had good motives, and I think they were out to have a little fun, too."
Miller's article reported that "officials barred access to many flooded areas for the safety of the public and emergency crews." The reporter told E&P he could see both sides of the issue, but he said he thinks the emergency officials could have given Patrick and her father a warning instead of a citation.
"From what the neighbors said, it wasn't like the water was rushing by, it wasn't like she was going down whitewater rapids," Miller said. "It was more like she was floating over a flooded meadow."
Danny Diego, the Patriot-News circulation director, told Miller that the paper would not join Patrick's legal battle because carriers are not Patriot-News employees. Miller said he had not spoken with Patrick since Monday afternoon, but as far as he knows, no charges have been dropped.
"I really doubt that they'll drop charges because of a newspaper story," Miller said. "They tend not to react to us like that around here."
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