Youth escape was more dangerous than stated

Regarding last week’s story, "Escape from Camp Kilpatrick," first of all, the escape was not foiled at Camp Kilpatrick. Three boys beat a counselor senseless and made their escape in brutally heavy rain. They escaped to White Cloud Ranch, climbed a back fence and gained entry into the home of our assistant manager, Sean Kemp, early Saturday.

Fortunately, Sean is a very unflappable person who did not know of the existence of Camp Kilpatrick located one and one-half miles from us. He had only moved in at Christmas with his wife and eight-year-old daughter. However, when daylight came, the boys showed no signs of leaving and Sean was feeling uneasy about the situation. He made an excuse to the boys that since we had no working phones on the ranch due to the storms that he had to check in with me and on the horses.

Sean came to my house and told me what was going on. I used my cell phone to call the sheriff who responded fairly quickly. When they arrived at the ranch, the boys were just coming out of Sean’s house and ran back into the house when they saw the deputies.

Damage was done to the house in pursuit of the escapees and a valuable collection of glassware destroyed. The sheriff informed us that the boys were most likely going to take one of the ranch vehicles to make their getaway, and that these boys were "pretty bad dudes."

We at White Cloud Ranch were fortunate that these young boys did not resort to violence as they did in making their escape from Camp Kilpatrick. I have lived here for 35 years and have never had a problem with the camp. In fact, in the past I have worked closely with a few of the "hard core" inmates. I certainly don’t anticipate any further confrontations and we are thankful that the counselor is going to be OK.

Carol Holmes

Malibu