A group of Baraboo High School boys partaking in a homecoming tradition of TPing houses on the night of October 5th wound up face to face with an angry dude dressed in military dregs wielding a flamethrower. The man, ex-military officer John Kolar, was the father of one of the boy’s school friends. His house was to be the target of their harmless prank. Kolar was accompanied by two other local residents – William Bowden, and James Langkamp, the athletic director at Baraboo High School.  

The men reportedly stepped in front of the mischievous teens’ car, preventing them from fleeing, and screamed expletives at them, demanding they exit the vehicle and get on the ground. Two of the teens ran, leaving behind driver John Beaudin and friend Teflon Lee. The two complied with the “lawful detainment” in fear of being hurt. According to 97x.com, a citizen’s arrest such as this one is “not legal in Wisconsin unless the citizen directly witnesses a felony, which they had not.

The incident purportedly came to a close when Kolar’s daughter came out and yelled at the adults to stop playing cop. A neighbor caught the entire incident on camera, and WRAL News interviewed the boys about the incident: 

The three men were arrested and Kolar was charged with disorderly conduct. He refused to give police permission to search his property for the flamethrower. Three of the boy’s mothers had restraining orders placed on Langkamp. Other than that, he and Bowden face no consequences.