"Brownie's troubles began," the Minneapolis Star reported, "when he let his canine curiosity run away with him." The springer spaniel crawled into a drainpipe on the Mississippi River in northeast Minneapolis on April 1, 1955. Unable to turn around, Brownie continued on for 500 feet before hitting a dead end in a warehouse on 13th Avenue near Marshall Street NE. Charles Winberg, right, heard muffled barks, and a plumber armed with a wrench and a drill was called to open the clean­out. Emil Kirchgatter helped Winberg pull the plucky pooch from the pipe. .