The winter this year in the US has been the worst in decades. Time for an old winter story that is supposed to be true but I can't verify it. I wasn't there. But I did live in Minnesota for a year and I know that the natives there, love to ice fish and drink beer.
A man, we will call John, bought a new Ford Explorer SUV in February, and to celebrate, he invited 3 of his buddies to go ice fishing. They packed their fishing gear, a case of beer, and took off for their favorite lake. The lake was frozen over so John drove the Ford SUV right out onto the lake. They did not have an auger to drill a hole, and chopping with an ax is hard work, so one of the men brought some dynamite to blast a hole in the ice. He lit the fuse, and threw the stick of dynamite onto the ice. It was a big mistake because one of the men had brought along his German Shepherd, Duke. And Duke loved to play "fetch" . He saw the stick being thrown and ran for it. He quickly retrieved the stick with the burning fuse and trotted back to the men, so they would throw it again. Horrified, the men scattered in all directions, with the dog and the stick after them. With only seconds to spare one of the men yelled to Duke "BAD DOG". Not understanding, the dog turned and ran for cover, hiding under the SUV.
They say that all good dogs go to heaven, and maybe he did. Two things are certain. 1. When you set off a stick of dynamite under a gas tank, there will be a large fire. 2. The shock wave of dynamite exploding, will crack the ice on a lake surface. So the fire went out quickly as John's new SUV sank into the water. A Ford Explorer is not designed to be a boat and soon the SUV was at the bottom of the lake.
Then the men realized to their horror that the rest of the case of beer was still inside John's brand new SUV. There were no cell phones in those days, so it was a long walk, until they could find a bar, and call their wives to get a ride back home.
To add insult to injury, the auto insurance agent did not believe John's story of how he lost his Ford.