It was a joyride on a chunk of ice early Friday morning that ended up costing three UW-Eau Claire students almost $200 apiece in fines.

The three students were ticketed for disorderly conduct after the Eau Claire Fire Department rescued them off the ice.

Freshmen Matt Turek and Alex Nett say while they appreciate the fire and police department's help in getting them off the river, they say they didn't want the help. And they feel like they weren't doing anything wrong because it's not illegal to be on the water. But the police department disagrees.

The students say it started as a fun ride down the Chippewa River on a floating chunk of ice.

Matt Turek said, "We weren't like out of control. When the first guy went out on the ice we checked him and were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down, let's think about this for a minute. We talked about what we were going to do if someone fell in."

But once a police officer saw them, it quickly turned to a full blown rescue effort.

Matt Turek said, "Then we heard sirens and more and more police started showing up."

Turek and Nett say they didn't want a boat to come out on the river to get them off the ice.

Matt Turek said, "We were like, that's going to be an enormous expense that we couldn't really field. We said if we have to pay for the boat, please don't send it. We're going to find another way to get back on land."

And once rescued, all three students were ticketed. Something they say wasn't fair.

Matt Turek said, "I'm not aware of the law were breaking. The reason we got a citation was because of all the trouble they went through, not because of what we actually did."

Rick Merryfield with the Eau Claire Fire Department says the situation could have been much worse for everyone involved.

Rick Merryfield said, "When it's not an accident and when someone does it on purpose, they are jeopardizing not only their lives, but the lives of the responders going out there."

And says it could have taken away from responding to other, serious calls.

Rick Merryfield said, "It would probably affect the way we responded to that because of the number of personnel that we had at this one incident."

Eau Claire Police Officer, Jason Kaveny, says Turek, Nett and Benjamin John, the University’s homecoming king, were cited because they put themselves and rescuers in danger.

City Attorney Steve Nick says the city will also look at actually sending the students a bill for the rescue. Nett and Turek say none of them were drinking or doing drugs before they got on to the ice and say they plan on fighting the disorderly conduct tickets.
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STORY FROM EARLY FRIDAY MORNING

Rescue workers gave three UW- Eau Claire students a stern lecture outside the classroom Friday morning.

A University police officer reported three people floating down the Chippewa River to Eau Claire Fire and Rescue crews just after 2 a.m. Friday.

Rescue crews say 18-year-old Matthew Turek, 19-year-old Alex Nett, and 21-year-old Benjamin John were floating down the river on an ice chunk that was approximately 6-feet by 15-feet.

Rescue crews put boats into the water at the Hobbs boat landing to get the men; all three men were able to get into one boat safely and returned to the boat landing. That's when crews told the men about what they call the stupidity of the joy-ride. They also reminded the men about all the resources used to rescue them. The men were not hurt.