- It's winter in Minnesota.

What do Minnesotans  like to do this time of year?

Go ice fishing.

But you have to be safe about it.

Ice is never a  hundred percent safe, and today we're gonna show you what happens when a vehicle goes  through, and what it takes to get it out.

- We are doing an ice recovery on a  2006 Chevy three- quarter-ton pickup.

- Well we're in the Willmar Lakes  area.

We're not too far from town here.

And as you can see behind me there's  a truck about half submerged in the water, and City Line Towing's got all their gear  out here.

They're putting it all together, now this is a long process.

It's eight  guys.

It's gonna take a few hours just to get the gear assembled and put it together  because you have safety to consider.

And then you have a lot of factors at play here to be  able to hook that truck up and get it out.

- When we pull up on a lake.

We walk out  with an auger right away.

You can generally walk up from the direction the vehicle  was coming from.

You know, the ice held it to that point.

And we'll check  around the back of the vehicle, and we'll check around the front of the vehicle.

It's generally, you know, you have your good ice.

And then from there forward it might be bad  ice for a ways, and it builds back up again.

- [Bret VO] Most of the crew is assembling the  pontoon and the winch and all the gear there.

There's another guy in the water cutting the ice  around it and getting ready to hook up the truck.

- Nope.

- [Worker] Careful.

- God, you're heavier than Mike, man!

Hanging on?

- Just so you know, this isn't  how we normally do it.

But today, since you're here, we'll put on a show.

- [Worker 1] Go ahead, unhook the winch.

- [Worker 2] Just unhook the  winch.

Leave the shackle.

- [Worker 1] I'll grab his back.

- [Worker 2] I'll help add on weight now.

- [Worker 3] Come on, go this way.

- [Jason] It's the same process if  it's where it's at now or if it's 30 feet deep in the water.

Once the pontoon  is erected we get it over the casualty.

- The soonest we can get out there is... We  can do 'em right away, but the main thing is to have suitable ice around the casualty to  be able to work off stable area.

It can be done either way.

If it's all the way submerged,  we typically mark it and wait for that good ice to work off of.

The DNR does give you 30 days.

If  you report it, they know where it's at.

We work off of those terms with the DNR and communicate  with local law enforcement to extract it usually.

- Law enforcement called us roughly about  7 o'clock last night.

I believe they sent rescue squad out here, but everybody  was out by the time they got out.

We like to see it as soon as possible.

I mean it doesn't hurt sitting in the water.

It's already in the water.

We're  not gonna go out and work until we're safe.

- Once they've got the pontoon over the hole it's  time to hook up the vehicle.

If it's too deep, they'll send a diver down to hook  up.

In this case they didn't have to, and Jason was able to hook it up himself.

- [Jason] Wheels suck, Josh!

- [Josh] Yeah, I know.

- [Jason] I can't get my fingers in there.

- [Bret] When you're down there,  what are you trying to hook onto?

- I like to go for wheels.

It's the  most outward point of the vehicle.

So when we're winching up, we're not pulling  into fenders and doing any more damage.

- So these are hooks that go like this.

- [Bret] Yep.

- So we're gonna be pulling - - [Bret] They're not a full loop  You're pulling on that gear.

- [Worker] If it goes down, it goes  down.

It ain't going down to the bottom.

- [Jason] I blame this all on  my father.

He should have told me to go be a doctor or a lawyer or something.

- You should have learned how to listen.

This winter has been very unpredictable.

I mean we've had the cold, we've had good ice  making conditions, but every one we've done, you talk to the locals on the lakes, and they've  never seen ice like this.

Just this year alone, I believe this is our seventh or eighth one that  I've been a part of.

If you're in a vehicle on the lake, have your windows down.

I've never  seen a vehicle go from the top of the ice to the bottom of the ice fast enough that you  can't get out.

Generally if they go through, the front goes down first.

And they'll  sit.

And that gives you your chance to get out.

And eventually they'll slide  in the rest of the way.

Pay attention to the ice.

Basically it's...the ice will  talk to you when you're driving across it.

- One thing to consider when you come driving  out on the ice is to set yourself a track on your GPS.

That way you've got a safe track  back.

Particularly if you're coming out in the dark.

But if something bad were to happen,  you can mark where your vehicle goes through.

- I thought I was on the shoreline.

It was that  peninsula there, as you saw, and.

Well I started getting farther.

Oh, that's the other side of  the lake.

I knew where I was at.

I looked over, I saw the landing I went to start turning and  then ice started flying up from my tires.

I was in four-wheel drive, so it was kicking up, and then I  just kind of knew what was happening.

It was like slow motion.

I mean I was only moving 10, 12 miles  an hour.

Just slowly sink in.

I hit the bottom.

- [Bret] And once it goes down,  what do you tell 'em?

Call you guys, call insurance, call DNR?

What do  you think?

Sheriff's department?

- Usually they call the sheriff's department.

Yep, and the sheriff's department will reach out to us.

The DNR, they'll get the  proper authorities involved.

Yep.

Big thing is keep track of where you're at if  you can, or where the vehicle is.

You know, this one obviously you could walk to  the access and see it.

Most of 'em, if they go all the way under?

On a day like today,  that hole will freeze over.

You won't even know.

- All right, so I got one here.

- We went off the tow hooks on the front and  a hitch on the back, that's good.

It's not as stable, but it works well if you can't get through  wheels.

Jason couldn't get through wheels with his thick gloves, but wheels are the strongest point  of a vehicle, so that's what we go for normally.

- [Bret] So when you see a truck that's half out of the water like today are  you like pfft, piece of cake - I was kind of bummed.

I wanted to get in.

If  it was 20 feet down I would've been pretty happy.

- Okay.

We got that hooked.

Pull that one in little bit.

- [Worker 1] You want a lift back now or what?

- [Worker 2] If the front will  stay put, then it'll be fine.

- [Worker 1] Okay, yeah, let's lift the back.

- [Worker 1] We can get the bumper above the ice.

- [Worker 2] Yep.

Lift the back up.

- [Worker 1] Keep dead-manning.

- That's a matter of cutting a hole.

And throwing  a big timber down there like that and running a couple winches.

A dead man system is what we  call it.

Sometimes we do two holes, and then do a bridge across.

To get more depending on the  ice conditions.

We're in good ice here today where we're standing.

And we were able to use one 8x8  post as our anchor point to extract it back out.

- [Worker 1] Dead man!

- [Worker 2] He didn't go at all  Keep pulling, the truck's in ice.

- [Worker 1] Okay, hold!

- Today was a good one.

There was good ice  in back of us.

Sometimes we don't have that.

I mean sometimes we're winching it 200,  300 yards before we can unload the truck.

- We've had some very difficult rescues  this year.

We had a Snow Bear fall through Lake Sarah down in Southwest Minnesota.

And with the tracks and the situation, they were traveling across the lake at night and  ended up entering open water.

And they're meant to float.

In this case they had a hole open in the  bottom.

And then when they exited they didn't go through the roof hatch.

They went through the  rear door.

So the unit took on water, and it wasn't buoyant anymore.

We probably should have  waited to do that one to have better ice to get it up onto 'cause we had to break through about  150 yards of bad ice to extract the casualty.

- [Jason] When we design that  pontoon, we are able to float 53,000 pounds with the buoyancy of the  pontoon and we can lift 40,000 pounds.

- [Worker 1] Again, pull!

- [Worker 2] The wheel should  roll up over that edge!

- That's quite the process right there.

We got to  the shop at 9:30, followed the guys out here.

It is 11:53 right now, and the truck is on top of  the ice.

So once you have everything hooked up, the process goes fairly easily I guess, but  it's a lot of work, and a lot of effort, and a lot of time put into how that  process works to get this job done.

- It's not cheap.

Side by side is different  than a pickup is on time.

If we need a diver in the water, how many guys we got,  how much equipment we have to bring out here.

We've done some as small as 4500  bucks.

We've had 'em reach up to 35, 40, sometimes even $50,000 depending  on how long we're out there.

- This year alone I think I have $1500 just in  upgrades and we gotta keep up on that stuff.

You know, with cold water conditions you need  special regulators, and then the new ice suit.

- The biggest thing is when you're planning  on entering onto frozen lakes, know what you have for insurance coverages.

We ran into a few  cases this year.

Where they assumed that they had coverages to recover their vehicle when it  falls through.

Mainly on the UTVs.

So if you're riding those things on an inland marine, or a  farm policy, in those cases there's exemptions and exclusions on what is covered because it was  intended to use for a different purpose.

So if you plan on taking your new side by side, or even  your used ones, or whatever you're gonna take out on the lake to go enjoy a day of fishing,  you might want to check with your insurance agent.

Make sure you have the proper coverages.

If you end up in a situation like this guy did.

- Once the vehicle's on the ice, it's up to the  owner to decide what to do next.

Depending on what your insurance is, the tow company might bring it  to their salvage yard and then you don't have to deal with it again.

If you're gonna try to save  the vehicle, it can become your responsibility to get it to a place to get fixed.

Or you can hire  the towing company to bring it there for you.

- We're gonna tow it out, I got a buddy  with a shop about 15 minutes from here, and get it warm.

I'll do the things I need  to do that.

Try to get something out of it.

- While there are companies like  this that can rescue your vehicle, it's up to you to be responsible on the ice.

Be safe, and enjoy another Minnesota winter.