Canoodling canoeists, riverbank lotharios and skinny-dippers. By the 1920s, local newspapers had taken to calling the Milwaukee River between North Avenue and Capitol Drive "Petters' Paradise." The Milwaukee Police Department acquired a secondhand, but rather sleek, motor boat, equipped it with a powerful spotlight and manned the craft with two officers daily. Though police did not name the boat, young couples began calling it "the killjoy."