Thieves caught after car falls through frozen lake

Two men are in hot water in northwest Wisconsin where they are accused of burglarizing ice shacks before the car they were driving on a frozen lake broke through the ice and sank, authorities said on Wednesday.

Ryan VanPuymbrouck, 20, and Tyler Hale, 24, both of Solon Springs, Wisconsin, are accused of taking a television, liquor, an auger used for cutting holes through the ice and other items on Monday from shacks set up on the frozen Upper St. Croix Lake, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

The men were driving along the lake when the car, a 2014 Ford Focus compact car owned by Hale’s girlfriend, broke through the ice. The pair got out safely and flagged down a fisherman who called police, according to the sheriff’s department.

Hale and VanPuymbrouck initially told deputies they were just driving around on the ice, but later confessed to the crimes and now face several burglary charges, the sheriff’s department said.

The uninsured car was found submerged in about 6 feet of water, the department said.