One has to wonder if the West Virginia hitchhiker making state and national news this month will change the name of the book he is working on.

Thirty-nine-year-old photographer Ray Dolin has been hitchhiking across the country taking pictures and notes for his planned publication entitled “Kindness in America.” On Saturday June 9, he was eating a lunch beside U.S. 2 three miles west of Glasgow when a car pulled over and stopped. Dolin thought he was going to get a lift, but as he approached the vehicle, the driver pulled out a pistol, shot him and drove away.

Dolin was soon rescued and taken to a hospital for his wound in his arm, and his suspected shooter was captured four hours later a hundred miles away in Culbertson. A suspect from Washington state was supposedly looking for work in the Bakken oil fields. When arrested, he was high on booze and drugs and has a record for criminal violence.

Considering the well publicized increase in lawlessness around that “Bakken boom” area, maybe Dolin could have found a better place for seeking random acts of kindness; however, being an incurable optimist, I have dreamed up a scenario wherein he will be overwhelmed by the tender-loving care of a beautiful Montana nurse, they fall madly in love, and he realizes the best thing that ever happened to him was being shot by some bad guy.

Another recent news story which perks up our imagination concerns a lady with lousy luck out in Portland, Ore. Police were notified by “a caller” who reported seeing a man kidnapping a woman and stuffing her into a large pink suitcase, then rolling the bag into an apartment complex.

Based on a “hot tip,” the following search of the building soon led to the apartment of 52-year-old Curtis Lowe. Alas! His secret was out of the bag. The “kidnap victim” was discovered hiding in a closet. Now comes the saddest part.

Fifty-year-old Kola J. McGrath was arrested for trespassing. Apparently she and Lowe had a hot romance going, but she had been banned from the complex last year for breaking a fire extinguisher case during an argument, so now she is being charged with trespassing. The AP story did not say if her honey was charged with anything but ... the “case” is going to court.

Turns out, Kola is 5 feet, 6 inches tall, but weighs only 96 pounds. I’m wondering if she has always been that slim or if she lost a lot of weight just so Curtis could stuff her into suitcases.

Sometimes love doesn’t triumph over all.

Editor’s note: Authorities now believe that Dolin shot himself. Ostrom will follow up on this in the next edition of the Bigfork Eagle.

Ostrom writes a regular column for The Bigfork Eagle.