>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

STRAY ARROW: Dick Burch of 502 N. Lake St. in Joseph found an arrow in the south end of his house Wednesday. - Submitted photo

“He almost ran into it mowing the yard,” his wife, Carol, said.

The Burches think it must have happened July 1, because that’s the only day that Dick was not in that area watering or mowing.

“Two to three feet higher and it could have gone through a window,” Carol said.

She thinks that a compound bow may have been used, because the practice arrow was imbedded at least an inch into the siding.

The damage was not serious, Dick said, adding that he could just plug the hole and paint it.

The arrow came from the southeast, he said. He told the sheriff that they’d had no problems with the neighbors.

“I wouldn’t think it was intentional,’ he said.

Such an act could carry charges of criminal mischief or  reckless endangering, Wallowa County Sheriff Fred Steen said.

Carol expressed concern that whoever did it may not know that it is illegal to shoot arrows within the city limits, that they did not realize that it could have hit someone and that they did not follow up and look for their arrow.