Law & Fiction–Stupid Criminal Tricks

A continuation of an occasional series of, well, things you shouldn’t do.

From the “You got through dental school, but you didn’t think this was a bad idea?” files: According to The Missoulian newspaper, three men from Utah and Idaho were cited for cooking chickens in a thermal hot spring in Yellowstone National Park in August, 2020. Two spent two days in jail and paid fines; the third—the dentist—avoided jail but paid a larger fine. All three are banned from the park for two years while serving unsupervised visitation.

“A park ranger heard that people with cooking pots were hiking toward the park’s Shoshone Geyser Basin. The ranger found two whole chickens in a burlap sack in a hot spring. A cooking pot was nearby, Yellowstone spokeswoman Linda Veress said,” according to the newspaper.

According to this piece from the Yellowstone National Park Trips website summarizing the dangers of the more than 10,000 geothermal features—hot springs, geysers, steam vents, and my personal favorite, stinkpots, many are literally boiling. One’s as hot as 250 degrees. Not a good place to soak your feet, as another tourist attempted to do. (In a cooler but still hot spot; he survived, with extensive burns.)

Seriously. You can’t make this stuff up. But have fun trying!

2 thoughts on “Law & Fiction–Stupid Criminal Tricks

Leave a Reply