Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee’s Newest 5-star Attraction Is… The Beached Yacht
The newest “tourist attraction” in Milwaukee is the abandoned boat stuck since October at Bradford Beach. With 60 Google Reviews as of Thursday and listed as a “tourist attraction” on Google Maps, the location lovingly named “The Minnow” – a reference to the S.S. Minnow of Gilligan’s Island notoriety – has a perfect 5-star rating.
Nate Weiss, listed as a Local Guide on his Google account, wrote that visiting the beached boat is “a uniquely Milwaukee experience.” There’s actually two Google Map listings for the abandoned vessel. The other, terrifically labeled a “religious destination,” unfortunately is uncreatively titled “Milwaukee boat.”
Hurry! Voting closes for Best of the Burbs on Monday, Jan. 13.
The Minnow’s actual name is Deep Thought. The 33-footer slid ashore Oct. 13. Its owners, identified by WISN-TV as Richard and Sherry Wells of Mississippi, reportedly got caught up in a storm and ran out of gas. They were rescued, but efforts to pull it free thus far have been unsuccessful. Now with the shoreline ice thickening, there’s no hope of dislodging it until spring.
Here are some of our favorite takes social media has had in the past 90 days about Milwaukee’s favorite Minnow:
Jon Proves He’s a Local
From the Google Reviews…
“There can be a bit of a wait, but the atmosphere is so electric the time flies by! Be sure to spend the extra $25 for the bottomless mimosas,” wrote Google userJoshua Sheeran. (It should be noted that there are no bottomless mimosas, or any other beverages offered by the non-existent crew of the beached boat. In fact, it’s probably best if you don’t eat or drink anything found in Bradford Beach’s sand. And definitely don’t kiss Ginger if she’s wearing her new lipstick.)
Exorbitant Rates!
Somebody Call Mr. Lightfoot
Dustin Schmaus thinks Gordon Lightfoot should come back from the grave to sonically eulogize Milwaukee’s Minnow: “It’s not the Edmund Fitzgerald, but it’ll do,” Schmaus wrote in his Google review.
Perhaps Summing it up Best
From Chris Merkel via Google: “This is absolutely everything you expect from a beached boat. Boat. Water. Beach. Sometimes fish.”
A new local clothing brand, Unfinished Legacy, staged a video shoot in front of the boat.
We Do Too, Tom…
We do too.
Drone video shows dug‑up yard at former Michael Lock home
Drone video shows a dug‑up yard at a Milwaukee home once owned by Michael Lock, following a police search for possible homicide victims.
Milwaukee police on Monday, April 20, began digging up a home once owned by notorious Milwaukee drug dealer Michael Lock.
The dig marks another chapter in Lock’s long criminal history in Milwaukee, which has included convictions for homicide, drug dealing, kidnapping, torture and running a prostitution ring.
As of 6 p.m., April 20, police had partially dug up the concrete driveway and yard in Lock’s former home. Lock has been convicted of murders of other drug dealers whose bodies were found under concrete slabs at a different home he owned.
As the dig continues, here’s what to know about Lock:
Who is Michael Lock?
Lock was the head of a murderous criminal organization known as the “Body Snatchers” and one of the leading criminal operators in Milwaukee until his 2007 arrest.
Over the course of a decade, Lock’s organization sold large volumes of cocaine, tortured and killed other dealers, prostituted women across the Midwest and ran a mortgage fraud scheme.
A jury convicted Lock in July 2008 in the homicides of two drug dealers in 1999 and 2000, whose remains were found in 2005 under concrete slabs in the backyard of a home once owned by Lock at 4900 W. Fiebrantz Ave. He has also been found guilty of running a prostitution ring, various kidnapping and drug dealing charges and mortgage fraud.
Where is Michael Lock now?
Lock is is serving multiple terms of life in prison at Waupun Correctional Institution without the chance of parole.
Where are Milwaukee police digging on April 20?
Milwaukee police confirmed they are executing a search warrant at the home on 4343 N. 15th St. in Milwaukee’s north side. City tax records show the property is owned by Shalanda Roberts, formerly Shalanda Lock, Michael Lock’s former wife.
Why are police digging up the yard of Lock’s former home?
There has long been suspicion on the part of law enforcement that there are additional bodies buried under the yard. In 2011, police dug another Milwaukee yard looking for remains.
In that warrant 15 years ago, investigators said at least four victims are buried somewhere in Milwaukee. Before that, police had dug a half-dozen other yards. Police have found no remains in the other digs.
Who lives at the property now?
It is unclear if anyone currently lives at the North 15th Street property. Shalanda Roberts told the Journal Sentinel she owns the property where police are digging, but it is a rental and she lives out of state now.
She said she has no information on the dig and has not spoken to her former husband in years.
Read the Journal Sentinel’s past coverage on Michael Lock
The Journal Sentinel documented the case against Lock in a five-part investigative series, “The Preacher’s Mob,” published in 2009.
You can read the series below:
Marvin Bynum, adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, was named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s list of Notable Leaders in Law.
Bynum, shareholder and real estate attorney with Milwaukee-based Godfrey & Kahn, teaches a course on real estate transactions at Marquette. He has experience with a range of property types, from sports facilities to manufacturing plants and office spaces, and works to help clients navigate transactions including development, financing, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions and low-income housing tax credit-financed projects.
Notable Leaders in Law is part of BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable series, which recognizes leaders in the southeastern Wisconsin business community.
Six alumni were also named to the list:
- Jim Brzezinski, managing partner and CEO of Tabak Law
- Adam R. Finkel, partner at Husch Blackwell
- Jeremy Guth, shareholder and attorney at O’Leary-Guth Law Office S.C.
- Keith Kopplin, shareholder at the Milwaukee office of Ogletree Deakins
- Isioma Nwabuzor, associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Modine Manufacturing Co.
- Joe Pickart, partner at Husch Blackwell
Milwaukee Wave coach Marcio Leite 2025-26 team’s evolution in MASL
See first-year Milwaukee Wave head coach Marcio Leite discuss the roles of younger players and veterans as the 2025-26 MASL season begins.
The Milwaukee Wave had been in the awkward position of trying to sell tickets to the MASL championship series without knowing when it would actually host a game.
The questions were answered late April 19, when the San Diego Sockers beat the St. Louis Ambush in the other semifinal in overtime. Their series didn’t even start until four days after the Wave eliminated the Baltimore Blast with victories in a regulation Game 2 and knockout Game 3 at the UWM Panther Arena.
Now the finals are set for two of the most decorated teams in arena soccer.
The Wave will host Game 1 at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 and then the series will finish at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California, with Game 2 at 9:30 p.m. April 24 and a potential Game 3 at 9 p.m. April 27.
Three versions of the Sockers have totaled 16 championships in various indoor league with the latest iteration founded in 2009 owning six of those. The Wave has seven.
First-year Wave head coach Marcio Leite has won titles with both franchises.
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