By Dave Orrick | dorrick@pioneerpress.com | photo by Larry Hildes
It's unclear why, but police put the heat on a weathered school bus Tuesday used by an independent media organization.
The group says the cops said they were looking for "dead bodies."
Police refused to provide any information on their actions, but a spokesman said the corpse thing was absurd.
"Does that sound logical?" police spokesman Tom Walsh asked. "We do things logically."
Larry Hildes, a California attorney and a legal observer with the National Lawyers Guild, said he saw a St. Paul police officer trying to pry the bus' side door open around 4:45 p.m. in a parking lot in Lowertown, where the bus was parked. "She informed me she was looking for dead bodies," said Hildes. "I informed here there were none." Hildes asked for a warrant; he said the police said they had none and left.
Hildes said bands of officers returned several times, at one point driving by slowly while one officer shined a light at the blocked-out windows and videotaped the bus.
"We're completely above-board," said Mary-Kate Stoever, a.k.a. Skinny Chef. "We just live in the bus."
Hours later, a Pioneer Press reporter observed a police car parked near the bus; the officer appeared to be watching. When asked what the cops were up to, Walsh responded, "I don't know anything about it. ... Nope, I'm not going to look into it either."
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