Image of Cowboy State Daily's advertising operations coordinator, Abby Roich fishing on a boat in a lake.

Abby Roich

Same Guys Dancing

[{"type":"text","text":"Metallica -- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)"}]

Mix Collage 06 May 2024 05 01 PM 7275

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Tuesday Morning Dance Party: Metallica -- Welcome Home (Sanitarium) | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Metallica -- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Tuesday Morning Dance Party: Metallica -- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

Mac Watson

Daily Video News

It’s time to take a look at what’s happening around Wyoming for Wednesday, July 8th.  I’m Mac Watson

This newscast is brought to you by the Wyoming State Fair. Wrap up your summer at the Wyoming State Fair, August 11th through the 15th in Douglas!

Rodeo, Demolition Derby, live music, entertainment and fair food await. Learn more at W-Y State Fair dot com. See you at the fair! This ad was paid for by Converse County Tourism.

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A North Carolina man is still missing after jumping into the Snake River without a life jacket on Saturday.  Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that authorities have changed the mission from search and rescue to recovery.

“55- year-old Tory Rather of Charlotte, North Carolina, went missing near Alpine in Wyoming when he jumped into the Snake River on Saturday without a life jacket. Authorities say that he was swept up by the current, and they have been searching for days to try and recover his body. On Tuesday, Lincoln County Sheriff Shane Johnson confirmed that this is now being looked at as a recovery and no longer a rescue. Johnson said, as time goes by, the likelihood of having a positive outcome goes down significantly. He is positive at this point. It is a recovery mission and not a rescue.”

Raether’s family sent Cowboy State Daily photos of the man and his wife taken just hours before the incident. Rafts, jet skis, a jet boat, drones, and search dogs have combed the Snake River below a popular cliff-jumping spot for days, all with one goal: bring Tory home.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"},{"type":"italic"}],"text":"–"}]

At least 13 portable toilets were blown up in Billings over the July 4th holiday and the company is blaming Wyoming fireworks for the destruction. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports the owners say the fireworks were likely purchased in Wyoming because Montana's fireworks aren't powerful enough.

“This is going to come straight out of the company's pocket. They're estimating at least $12,000 in damages, and while they have insurance, their deductible is $1,000 and if their deductible is $1,000 and each portable toilet is treated as a separate incident. So, if they tried to file a claim to get the cost for the destroyed toilet, then they would get maybe $100- $150 each after their deductible. So, it's not even worth filing the claim. They don't know who did it. They have no way of identifying them, and there's not a viable path to collect on insurance.”

Co-owner Kris Vogele tells Cowboy State Daily that these aren’t the type of fireworks you can “buy at a fireworks stand in Montana. It had to have been a large explosive.” Vogele said he believes the fireworks came from Wyoming or the Crow Indian Reservation near Billings.

Matthew Lynch lost most of his right hand in a fireworks explosion on July 4th. But Cowboy State Daily’s Kolby Fedore reports that the Gillette carpenter isn't giving up on his electric-guitar dreams. 

“Matthew Raymond Lynch says the incident was horrifying. He said when he lit a firecracker that he'd been carrying in his back pocket for years, trying to be adventurous, it blew up almost instantly. He looked down and his hand was the craziest, most mangled thing he says he's ever seen. the damage was so extensive that his friend took off his belt and used it as a tourniquet to save Lynch from losing his life. Lynch is an artist, he's a musician, a potter, and a carpenter by trade. He says the road to recovery will be long, but he's already been talking to doctors and hopeful that he will be able to get a prosthetic, and vows that one day he'll be able to play guitar again.”

The blast severed most of Lynch's right hand, shattered bones throughout his left hand, peppered his face, neck and chest with shrapnel and burns, and sent him by Life Flight to Billings, Montana. In the days since, Lynch has publicly apologized, saying he feels terrible for the people who were injured alongside him.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"–"}]

The Green River City Council is considering finalizing a $112,000 grant it's been awarded to install license-plate readers in the city. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that the mayor says the cameras could curb terrorism while former Libertarian lawmaker Marshall Burt says it's all “bullshit.”

“The police chief said, ‘Yeah, we're not looking to nitpick with these. We want to really amplify our response to things like missing and vulnerable persons cases or serious criminal flight cases.’ Marshall Burt, who is the first Libertarian ever that Wyoming ever sent to the legislature, said, ‘This is a slippery slope, because this grant is based on fighting terrorism, but these things can track people's movements and compile data on people's movements and patterns.’”

Green River applied last year for two Wyoming Office of Homeland Security grants and in January was awarded one for $111,956 to buy and install license plate readers for the police department, says the 

. Mayor Pete Rust tells Cowboy State Daily the police department spearheaded the grant application.

I’ll have more news from Cowboy State Daily right after this.

Cowboy State Daily News continues now….

A Casper man says he felt fortunate to rescue a baby pronghorn who got stuck in a cattle guard on Tuesday. Cowboy State Daily’s Andrew Rossi reports that Dylan Heide says by posting the video, he hopes he can reduce the stigma around hunting and hunters. 

“It was a very young fawn, so he just gently lifted and twisted it out of the cattle grate and let it successfully reunited with what he assumed was a few does, and one of which was probably its mother. Dylan goes out a lot during the summer, scouting for pronghorn. He hopes to hunt in the fall, and he'd never seen one with its body stuck in a cattle grate before, but if this fawn was young, he estimated it was probably only a month old, if that, and it's just probably the first time I'd ever seen a cattle guard before.”

Heide shares his stories and perspectives on hunting and fishing in Wyoming on his 

 social media pages. He has a particular outlook on Wyomingites’ relationship with pronghorn and tells Cowboy State Daily, “The majority of us really care about wildlife.”

Allegedly outraged by a dirt bike zipping around his Albany County campsite, a man is accused of pulling two guns and brawling with three other campers over the weekend. Cowboy State Daily’s Greg Johnson reports that investigators say, at one point, Tyler James McGill “stepped back and racked the slide, and pointed.”

“What it boils down to is somebody riding a motorbike past somebody else's campground got that guy mad, and so he went looking for him down this camp. There were three men in the camp, and all four of them brawled. This guy took all three of them on, and at times during the brawl, it kind of the affidavit reads kind of like a movie script. he gets a gun from the waistband of one of the one of the other campers he's fighting, pointed at him, the guy wrestles the gun away from him, so he goes back to his campsite and gets another gun, it's just kind of a wild, wild tale at this Albany County campground over the Fourth of July weekend.”

McGill, born in 1996, could get more than 15 years in prison if convicted of felony aggravated assault and battery and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent.

A Washington, D.C., super-PAC is attacking U.S. Senate candidate Sam Mead for a $27 donation Mead made in 2019 to then-presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. Cowboy State Daily’s Clair McFarland reports that Mead is defending the move, saying it was about solving health care policy problems.

“Sam Mead has political credentials and is waging a really staunch Keep Public Land in Public Hands campaign, and this, you know, conservative super PAC found that in 2019 he had donated $27 to Bernie Sanders campaign. The election filings show that, and Meade told me that at the time he saw a lot of harm from Obamacare, the Obama insurance policies that Wyoming pushed back against hard at the time, and he said that he liked a lot of Sanders' ideas on health care, and decided to back that.”

 post by Club For Growth president David McIntosh. The group calls itself the leading free-enterprise advocacy group in the nation and has endorsed Rep. Harriet Hageman.

Cheyenne’s Board of Public Utilities is not commenting further on the city’s data center sewer contamination. Cowboy State Daily’s Kate Meadows reports that residents still don't know where contaminated wastewater was taken, why the public wasn't notified for months, or what safeguards are now in place.

“Residents in Cheyenne have a lot of questions still with the sewer reuse contamination that was announced last week by the Board of Public Utilities. Cowboy State Daily reached out to Mayor Patrick Collins and asked, should the public be worried about this being a public health crisis, and is there a chance that it could happen again. The mayor candidly told us that we should be worried, because there's always a chance that it can happen, and there's always something to worry about when you're dealing with, you know, public utilities and big corporations, that's juxtaposed to the Board of Public Utilities that told us they are not commenting any further on anything until they deliver this press conference in about a week.”

Last Thursday, the board announced that Goat Systems LLC, the corporate entity Meta uses during construction of its nearly 800,000-square-foot data center campus, was in “significant noncompliance” with the city's industrial pretreatment regulations. 

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And that’s today’s news. Get your free digital subscription to Wyoming's only statewide newspaper by hitting the Daily Newsletter button on 

 - and you can watch this newscast every day by clicking Subscribe on our 

 channel, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.  Thanks for watching - I’m Mac Watson, for Cowboy State Daily.

News image 2 7 7 26

<title>Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Wednesday's headlines include:
* Vandals Explode 13 Portable Toilets
* Man Presumed Drowned In Snake River
* Guitarist Vows To Play Again After Losing Hand

Cowboy State Daily Video Newscast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Coy Knobel

Don Day Weather

Chance of afternoon rain in parts of Wyoming on Wednesday, otherwise mostly sunny. Some severe storms possible. Partly to mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain in some areas. Highs mainly in the 80s. Lows from the mid 40s to low 60s.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":" "}]

Slight chance of rain, otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 7 p.m., a low near 58 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Slight chance of rain after 3 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m., a low near 57 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

 Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

 Slight chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 83 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 48.

  Chance of rain mainly before 4 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 85 and wind gusts as high as 23 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 56 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Slight chance of rain, increasing clouds today with a high near 82 and mostly cloudy overnight with a low near 45.

Sunny today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 48.

 Increasing clouds today with a high near 86 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

  Increasing clouds today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 46.

 Sunny and breezy today with a high near 80 and wind gusts as high as 25 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 49 and wind gusts as high as 22 mph.

  Increasing clouds today with a high near 85 and gradually becoming mostly clear overnight with a low near 49.

Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

:  Sunny today with a high near 77 and mostly cloudy overnight a low near 43.

Chance of rain mainly after 2 p.m., otherwise sunny today with a high near 89 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 11 p.m. and a low near 59.

:  Chance of rain mainly after 1 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 83 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 59.

  Slight chance of rain after 2 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 90 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

  Chance of rain (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 11 p.m. (some storms could be severe) and a low near 60.

  Chance of rain mainly after 2 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 89 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 8 p.m. and a low near 56.

:  Chance of rain mainly after 4 p.m., increasing clouds today with a high near 89 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 59.

Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph. Cloudy then becoming partly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 60 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph.

  Chance of rain, otherwise partly sunny today with a high near 86 and wind gusts as high as 18 mph. Mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight, a low near 61 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

:  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 61.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m. (some storms could be severe), otherwise mostly sunny and hot today with a high near 90 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain (some storms could be severe) and a low near 60.

  Chance of rain mainly after 3 p.m., otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 88 and mostly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

  Chance of rain mainly after noon (some storms could be severe), otherwise sunny today with a high near 86 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 10 p.m. (some storms could be severe) and a low near 55.

  Chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 85 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain mainly before 9 p.m. and a low near 55.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 81 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 51.

  Chance of rain after noon, otherwise mostly sunny today with a high near 84 and mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain before midnight and a low near 56.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 85 and partly cloudy overnight with a low near 53.

  Slight chance of rain after noon, increasing clouds today with a high near 86 and partly cloudy overnight with a slight chance of rain before 9 p.m. and a low near 50.

  Chance of rain, increasing clouds today with a high near 84 and wind gusts as high as 21 mph. Partly cloudy overnight with a low near 51 and wind gusts as high as 20 mph.

Daycap no play 7 8 26

<title>Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Chance of afternoon rain in parts of Wyoming on Wednesday, otherwise mostly sunny. Some severe storms possible. Partly to mostly cloudy overnight with a chance of rain in some areas. Highs mainly in the 80s. Lows from the mid 40s to the low 60s.

Don Day's Wyoming Weather Forecast: Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Around Wyoming

 outside a Gillette bar, Matthew Lynch stood onstage at the American Legion with an electric guitar slung across his shoulder, living a dream he'd chased for most of his life.

Lynch, a 41-year-old carpenter, potter and musician, spent Independence Day doing what he loved most — playing rock and roll with friends before a hometown crowd.

By midnight, he was staring at what remained of his right hand, unable to hear, his vision awash in "red, purple and stars."

"I looked down on my hand, and it was just the most mangled, crazy-looking thing I've ever seen," Lynch told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. "I was instantly in shock." 

The explosion outside the Otherside Bar & Grill injured Lynch and four other people after what he described as an old firecracker he carried in his back pocket for years detonated instantly when he lit it rather than giving him time to throw it.

The blast severed most of Lynch's right hand, shattered bones throughout his left hand, peppered his face, neck and chest with shrapnel and burns, and sent him by Life Flight to Billings, Montana. In the days since, Lynch has publicly apologized, saying he feels terrible for the people who were injured alongside him.

Now recovering at home with both arms wrapped in bandages, Lynch said he keeps returning to two thoughts: the people he endangered and the life he's determined to rebuild.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Tourniquet "}]

After finishing the American Legion concert, Lynch said he spent the evening downtown with friends before hearing about a benefit concert at Otherside.

By the time he arrived, the music was over. People stood outside talking, catching up and deciding where the night would go next.

"I had found this old firecracker I had laying around for a few years and I had it in my back pocket," he said. "I thought, 'Well, I'm just gonna be a little adventurous here, light this off', and then it just blew up right in my face. The fuse was just instant." 

[{"type":"text","text":"The blast left him deafened, nearly blinded and in shock."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He remembers seeing nothing but flashes of color."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he looked down."}]

"I kept thinking this is never going to go away," he said. "I made a mistake I could never undo." 

His friend AJ immediately recognized how badly he was bleeding and shouted for a tourniquet.

Someone pulled off a belt and cinched it around Lynch's arm while they waited for first responders.

A woman Lynch had never met knelt beside him, gently held his face in her hands and kept him from looking at his injuries.

"She kept saying, 'You're gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine. Just don't look at it,'" Lynch recalled. "'Just look in my eyes. Everything's gonna be OK'." 

He also praised the doctors, nurses and staff at Campbell County Memorial Hospital, saying they treated him "like family" before he was flown to Billings for emergency surgery. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Artist and Carpenter "}]

Before the explosion, Lynch spent his days building houses, creating pottery, painting and playing guitar.

[{"type":"text","text":"He's a carpenter following in his father's footsteps."}]

He's an artist whose work is featured in a monthlong exhibition at AVA Community Art Center in Gillette — a show he spent more than a year preparing.

Despite his injuries, Lynch plans to attend the opening reception for from 6-8 p.m. Thursday.

For four years, he also hosted an open jam session at Legends Lounge, welcoming musicians of every skill level to climb onstage and play.

"I've always believed in everybody's own success," he said. "Anybody can do anything." 

His mother, Patricia David, said those qualities have defined him since childhood.

"His name means ‘Gift of God', and it was the perfect name for him," she said. "He has been the brightest, most joyful child you could imagine ... always kind." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Shattered Bones "}]

"The first thing that hit me was I'm not going to be able to pick up my beautiful son and hold him for quite a while," Lynch said. "He's my whole world." 

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came another realization."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He wouldn't be able to go fly fishing with his brothers."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the one that hurt most."}]

"My lifelong dream and mission my entire life has been to be a professional guitar player," he said. 

One of the final photographs taken before the explosion shows Lynch gripping the neck of his guitar as he performed at the American Legion that afternoon.

[{"type":"text","text":"Today, most of his right hand is gone."}]

His left hand is held together with pins and hardware after surgeons repaired shattered bones.

Lynch's mother, a retired nurse, said the injuries are among the worst she has seen.

She said she was equally moved by the apology Lynch posted publicly after the accident.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Strong Support System "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Despite everything, Lynch refuses to believe his music is over."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"He said doctors are optimistic that his left hand will recover."}]

"I'm going to get a bionic prosthetic, and I'm going to be playing guitar again someday," he said. "It's going to be awesome." 

[{"type":"text","text":"His optimism has been strengthened by the people around him."}]

His twin brother immediately drove to Billings after hearing what happened.

[{"type":"text","text":"His mother has helped care for him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Most of all, he credits Kathryn Schwartz, the mother of their son."}]

"I've got to spend so much time with the mother of my child," Lynch said. "We've just been reconnected, and that's awesome."

Before Lynch even returned home from the hospital, Schwartz had cleaned his house, prepared a place for him to recover and, he said, "hasn't left my side."

[{"type":"text","text":"Friends he hadn't spoken to in 20 years have reached out."}]

"I've probably had a dozen people I don't even know message me," Lynch said. "The outreach from this community has just been immense, and I am so grateful." 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Focus On The Blessings'"}]

Lynch knows the months ahead will include surgeries, rehabilitation and learning to navigate life with a devastating disability.

[{"type":"text","text":"He also knows the outcome could have been much worse."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Shrapnel struck his face, neck and chest."}]

"It could have been so much worse," he said. "I still believe God's got a plan for all of us." 

He hopes others learn from what happened — how quickly one impulsive decision can change a life.

[{"type":"text","text":"But he also hopes they remember something else."}]

"Stay optimistic," Lynch said. "Life has a lot of suffering, but we've got to focus on the blessings and the goodness too and just be grateful that we're alive to even begin with."

Mix Collage 07 Jul 2026 03 48 PM 9558

<title>After Blowing Off Most Of His Hand, Gillette Musician Vows He'll Play Guitar Again | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Matthew Lynch lost most of his right hand in a fireworks explosion on July 4. But the Gillette carpenter, potter and musician is counting his blessings and refusing to give up on his electric-guitar dreams. "It's going to be awesome," Lynch said.

After Blowing Off Most Of His Hand, Gillette Musician Vows He'll Play Guitar Again

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Crime & Courts

Urapeein Porta Pots in Billings, Montana, expects to lose a few toilets every Independence Day.

Over the last week, at least 13 of the small company’s portable toilets were destroyed.  

[{"type":"text","text":"Even by their standards, that’s a massacre."}]

“We typically lose four to five toilets every year during the Fourth of July due to fireworks,” co-owner Kris Vogele said. “Some years, we’ve lost eight or nine. There have been at least 13 this year, and that’s worse than normal.”

Vogele estimates that damages are well over $12,000 and could easily get higher. All those costs will come out of the company’s porta-pot profits.

“People don't think about who this impacts,” he said. “They want to blow up a toilet for the laughs, but it’s definitely hurting people, and it hurts our community.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Blowin’ Up Toilets"}]

Vogele started getting calls about destroyed toilets last week. They lost their first one on Wednesday.

“It mostly has happened in residential construction projects in northwest Billings,” he said. “Subdivisions where not a lot of people are living yet, but a lot of new homes are being built.”

Vogele’s phone was ringing off the hook Monday, as contractors returning to work after the holiday weekend reported unusable toilets and their contents scattered across their job sites.

The only explanation for the extent and nature of the damage is fireworks. Big fireworks.

After several years in the portable toilet business with his son, Connor, Vogele knows to anticipate some lost toilets during the week of Independence Day. It’s the only time of year it seems to happen.

“It's pretty much whenever anybody has access to fireworks,” he said. “We’ve lost a couple around New Year’s, and we might lose a few more this weekend. If people have fireworks they didn’t set off last weekend, they might blow up a toilet this weekend.”

Most of the destroyed toilets were blown apart, but some were melted by the intense heat of whatever was inside.

“They light a fountain off on the floor of the toilet, and that usually melts or burns most of it,” Vogele said. “We've had one toilet that actually burned all the way to the ground. When we showed up for it, it was just a block of plastic on the ground.”

At this point, there are no culprits because there were no security cameras catching the toilet destroyers in the act. Vogele will have to swallow those costs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Out-Of-State Ordnance?"}]

By this point, Vogele understands what kind of fireworks are needed to blow up a toilet. That’s why he believes they couldn’t have come from Billings or the surrounding area.

“These are not the type of fireworks you can buy at a fireworks stand in Montana,” he said. “If you saw one of our toilets that was really blown apart, it had to have been a large explosive.”

Vogele said he believes the fireworks came from Wyoming or the Crow 

 year-round, whereas Montana only allows for sales between June 24 and July 5.

If Montanans want bigger fireworks, they’ll find them at the year-round places. For Vogele, it’s the only way to explain the extent of the destruction.

"I know a lot of people go to Wyoming to buy bigger fireworks than we can get here," he said.

There are many ways to blow up a portable toilet. 

 the cocktail of chemicals and human waste in the tank won’t be enough to stop an explosion.

“They're either putting it in the tank and blowing a big hole in the tank, or setting it on the floor,” Vogele said. “If the porta potty has been used, it's not all liquid in the tank. It might land on toilet paper floating right at the top and blow up.”

Either way, the aftermath isn’t pleasant. It’s another problem Vogele must deal with.

“If the explosive goes in the tank, whatever’s inside it goes everywhere,” he said. “It’s quite the cleanup.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"No Assurance From Insurance"}]

A single portable toilet costs around $900, plus an additional $250 for shipping. 

Yes, but with the way the company’s insurance works, Vogele said it’s not worth the effort or payout.

“Our insurance company sees each exploded toilet as an individual occurrence, so each one has its own deductible,” he said. “Our deductible for equipment is $1,000, so the most we could get is $100 to $150.”

If Vogele filed a claim for each destroyed toilet, each would be treated each as a loss. That would drive up Urapeein’s annual rates when the company renews each year.

That’s why Vogele said “it’s not worth reporting” any of the exploded toilets.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I don’t need my insurance to go up that much,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Don’t Be Crappy"}]

The costs for repairing or replacing $12,000 of destroyed property, so far, will be covered by Urapeein. For Vogele, that’s adding insult to injury.

“We donate a lot to the community and sponsor a lot of events and organizations,” he said. “At the end of the day, that's $12,000 we won’t have to give to our community.”

More than 400 Urapeein toilets are placed throughout southern Montana, Vogele said, so the 13 blown-up toilets don’t represent a huge loss of inventory. Still, he can’t help but empathize with his son, who started the business.

At least 13 portable toilets were blown up in Billings over the July 4 holiday and the company is blaming Wyoming fireworks for the destruction. They say the fireworks were likely purchased in Wyoming because Montana's fireworks aren't powerful enough.

Tuesday Morning Dance Party: Metallica -- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

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Tuesday Morning Dance Party: Metallica -- Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

In case you missed it

Authors

Abby Roich

Writer

More in Same Guys Dancing

Saturday Morning Dance Party: February 28, 2026

Wednesday Morning Dance Party: July 23, 2025

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