[Diver1111]

Thanks for your post McDude a while back on this part of the lake-huge history of course. The latest post got me thinking about that strip of shoreline again and reminded me of something that I found there-not historical in the strictest sense but interesting to me nonetheless-if not for McDude I would not have dived where I did this day.

Because of McDudes' ability to produce (really) remarkable historical information about so much of the lake-based on his postings I decided late in November 2007 while passing through Alton on my way home to Exeter, to do a quick shore dive off the docks there.

I swam up and down the shore, first from the docks to the bridge, then back past them towards the Mounts' dock. Offshore about 30 feet in about 30 feet of water, I came across a womans' pocketbook-loaded down with rocks. Taking out the rocks, I stuffed the pocketbook into my mesh bag and continued the dive, knowing better than to open it under water. During that dive I also came back with a clean set of chrome sockets and wrenches in the blue plastic box they were packaged in, and a nice, new, aluminum telescopic boat hook. Sweet.

Back on shore I opened up the pocketbook and found the whole deal-license, BC/BS card, bank card, credit cards, registration, coins, $11 in cash in a purse and more.

Back home I traced the woman to Barrington, called her and told her I had her belongings. She was dumbfounded.

The story: She was a single Mom working a 2nd job doing a DJ gig on the shore that night (right there) about 1 year earlier; She was paid about $300 in cash that night, which she placed in one of those small dollar-sized envelopes banks give you, which she then placed into her pocketbook. She left the gig when it was done with a friend of hers who-unfortunately-was with some dirtbag who had recently been released from prison. Walking out to her car with her friend and the dirt-bag (details foggy to me) she unlocked her car, placed her pocketbook in her car, then left them for a moment, then returned to her car alone, and realized her pocketbook was gone. She went home empty- handed.

I mailed her the pocketbook in its entirety-including the $11.00 but minus the white bank envelope with the $300 because of course it wasn't there. Whoever ripped her off went in and out of her car fast-taking whatever was on top in the pocketbook-then finding stones to weight it down with and tossed it into the lake-thinking it was gone-wrong.

She wrote me a wonderful note thanking me for my efforts-boy what a nice feeling. As I said, not directly related to any history of Winni, but had it not been for McDudes postings about Alton I would not have stopped there for a quickie-dive.

As for throwing things away into water, I recovered a 44 Magnum with an 8" barrel in a "nearby" body of water in September at the request of a local PD-so my team and I went looking for it; Photo attached-not Winni but close enough.

What fun.