FOR RELEASE 700AM, DECEMBER 22, 2003

CLARK COUNTY SHERIFF IN QUANDRY

Early this morning on sleepy Spanish Heights Drive in Las Vegas, residents were awakened to the sounds of large equipment. In this normally sedate neighborhood such sounds are alien. This is an area that caters to the upper crust of Las Vegas. Such occurences are rare and as one resident said, "Not tolerated."

Sheriff of Clark County, Bill Young, was initially at a loss to explain the strange occurence. He and other officers were summoned to the residence of Dwight "Skip" Harouff at approximately 3:20 AM. The call came from a "terrified" elderly woman who told police dispatchers, "Get the hell out here, I think that thing is headed for my yard." Upon arrival at the residence they found huge, glaring, floodlights illuminating the rear portion of the Harouff estate. The sight they saw was not something they had been prepared for at any training sessions. There was a huge Caterpillar 5230-B Hydraulic Excavator in the back yard doing deep excavation. Mr. Harouff was observed wildly signalling the operator, in what appeared to be signals indicating, to dig deeper.

As a point of information, the 5230-B is a Caterpillar product made for heavy mining applications. It has a bucket capacity of 22 cubic yards. It was not clear how Mr. Harouff or the contractor had got this behomoth into this normally quiet gated community. That is still being investigated. The Sheriff later said, "Equipment such as this is rarely seen out side of a heavy mining situation, it is beyond belief that this piece of equipment could have been transported into a residential neighborhood."

It was clear that huge bites were being taken and piled to the sky. When Sheriff Bill Young finally got Mr. Harouff aside and began to ask questions, Mr. Harouff took another run at the 5230-B, screaming at the operator. "I know the son of a b*tches are buried out here somewhere."

Background checks by the Clark County Sheriff's Department with NCIC revealed that Mr. Harouff had no prior convictions. They did note that he was a model citizen and highly respected.

Shortly thereafter his wife Mary Ann, appeared on the upper level of the palatial house and with the use of a bull horn encouraged Mr. Harouff to come in and go to bed, in no uncertain terms. Sheriff Young screamed at her, "We are all going to have to sit down and talk." She replied by saying, " You get that backhoe shut down and get the hell off the property, and Skip you better get your butt in here immediately." She then told Sheriff Young she was tying Skip to the bed and she would talk to him at the front door.

Sheriff Young was quite concerned about what was buried in the back yard. Mary Ann Harouff related a story about Skip buying garrish toilet seats from Ebay Auctions. She said that "Skip had been made fun of for buying them so he had them buried." Later he found out the one had 6 rare Flamingo Poker Chips embedded in the plastic. She said she thought the chips were worth about $12,000.00 apiece." She also told him, "It's not like we need the money or anything", and then added that it would be great if he would bury "All this other stuff he has been buying on Ebay." She then slammed the door saying, "I'll talk to you later."

By now it was 600 AM, Sheriff Young rounded up everyone and departed the scene. The investigation is continuing.