10/10/11 – Everyone’s okay after part of a Boy Scout troop got lost during a canoe trip in southern Wisconsin during the weekend. But Rock County Sheriff Bob Spoden said it would have been a lot easier to find the missing youngsters, had the scout leader not taken away their cell phones. Fourteen Scouts and their leader from Mendota Illinois started canoeing late Saturday morning on the Sugar River about 15 miles west of Beloit. When they got to Sugar River Park, they noticed that two canoes containing four young boys were missing. The sheriff said they waited a half-hour, so the missing boys could catch up. But they didn’t. So they did some more searching. And when they arrived at a forest preserve in Illinois, they called for help. Rock County sheriff’s personnel and rescuers from four departments searched for the 12-to-13-year-old kids – and a state D-O-T chopper finally found them around one yesterday morning. Officials think the four missing boys might have taken a wrong turn on the river. The scout leader took their cell phones so they wouldn’t get wet – but Spoden said at least one youngster on the boat should have kept his phone to call for help. Also, deputies could have traced the phone to find the youngsters’ exact location without having to do the extensive search.