I’ve never hitchhiked, but I’ve often wondered what it would be 
like, sticking your thumb out at motorists, hoping one of them stops, hoping it isn’t someone who wants to take you home and introduce you to his woodchipper.
That’s a reference, of course, to the movie Fargo, set partly in North Dakota, not far from the small city of Edgeley in LaMoure County, where 16-year-old Harman Singh was an exchange student until May 16, when he apparently tried to make it on his own. He left goodbye notes and hit the road for about a week, before calling his host mother from Fergus Falls, Minn., about 130 miles away. He’s now in custody and will be sent back to India.
LaMoure County Sheriff Bob Fernandes is puzzled how Singh managed to hitchhike to Fergus Falls without authorities hearing about it.
He said it seemed odd that motorists would not report picking up a young man from an Eastern nation.
“I think that would have raised some red flags,” he said. [Link]
Red flags? Of course, it raises some red flags. In fact, I just gave the sheriff a call.
Me: “Sheriff Fernandes, I just spotted some young people who look like they might be from an eastern nation. What do you think I should do? Should I detain them?”
Fernandes: “What are they doing?”
Me: “Well, they’re holed up in a bunker of some sort.”
Fernandes: “A bunker? What are they doing in the bunker?”
Me: “Well, they’re putting stuff on that thing called the Internets. And they keep using the word ‘mutiny.’”
Fernandes: “A mutiny? Here in North Dakota? Geez Louise, what the dickens is going on? First an Eastern kid is running loose and now this!”
