TOWN OF CALEDONIA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – People living near Rawhide Boys Ranch in Waupaca County say they no longer feel safe.
In the past week, there have been two separate incidents of juveniles running away from the at-risk youth facility, according to the sheriff’s office.
Neighbors say they’ve felt at risk for a while, but reached out to FOX 11 after the latest incident this past weekend.
Sheriff’s officials say, two teens, who left Rawhide, were hurt after stealing a vehicle and leading authorities on a high-speed chase through two counties.
That has Debra Emerich a little worried
“I come home and it’s instantly you look around and wonder hmmm, wonder if somebody is in here.”
For about five years now, Emerich has lived about two miles from Rawhide.
She tells FOX 11 her first scary encounter with the facility a few years ago when she found a police officer in her backyard.
“I opened the door and I said sir can I help you and he said no you go in your house. The way you can help me if you get in your house, you close your windows, close the curtains, close the doors, lock the doors and stay away from the windows. I’m like oh my gosh, ok, fine, yeah, alright.”
Three weeks ago, Emerich says a runaway from Rawhide stole her husband’s unlocked vehicle from their driveway.
“It’s totally different now. After you get violated like that it’s like it’s just very hard to keep moving and not be suspicious.”
Rawhide serves at-risk boys, primarily 14 to 17 years old, but sometimes as young as 11.
“First and foremost, these aren’t going to be juvenile criminals, so these are going to be kids that are coming for help,” said Alan Loux, president, and CEO of Rawhide.
“They may have gotten in trouble with the law. They may have been taken out of their homes because they’ve been abused or neglected. They may have been truant in school, they’re looking for education, so we get a whole range of kids that come here from the communities.”
While students are free to come and go from Rawhide’s more than 700-acre, rural facility, they must be in the presence of staff at all times.
If they leave campus unattended, Loux says they contact the Waupaca County Sheriff’s Department, who sends out what’s called a Code Red alert.
“So that will give them an email-text and a voicemail to say there is a youth that is unattended, please be on the lookout for them, etc.”
Residents must sign up for the alerts.
“Nine out of ten times they don’t end poorly,” said Loux. “We end up getting students back here and they end up going through the program. Occasionally, you’ll have the really sad stories where that doesn’t happen.”
Rawhide reports it has an 80 percent success rate of returning children to the community. The only instance when runaways are not allowed back at Rawhide is if they commit a crime.
The Waupaca County Sheriff’s Departments says it has had calls for service at Rawhide 169 times since the start of last year.
