It seems half the continent is on fire. Wildfires are blazing across the U.S. and Canada, breaking records in both size and number of the conflagrations. Somebody with average intelligence would probably put it together that land protectors are on the lookout. One dumb crook doesn’t get it. The BLM nabs an arsonist, who didn’t start out that way. He’s just so clueless that he had to add injury to insult.
A column of smoke starts the ball rolling
Back on July 6, a helicopter pilot flying over a stretch of Oregon’s Willamette National Forest spotted a column of smoke. The pilot reported it in, and Department of Forestry firefighters hit the ground running.
It wasn’t a big fire, thank heavens, but it was a wildfire nonetheless. As it turns out, the fire wasn’t on Forest Service land, but on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) turf in Lane County.
BLM law enforcers investigated the now-out fire, and it didn’t take long to see that somebody had set a pile of garbage on fire. Now, dumping garbage on federal land is an insult—and a crime. Lighting that garbage on fire is an injury—and an even bigger crime.
If you were a dumb crook, could you put two and two together. “I dump garbage, I get a fine, maybe I do community service. I light my garbage on fire, I go to jail.”
BLM nabs arsonist who’s none-too-bright
BLM and contract deputies with the Lane County Sheriff’s Office started sniffing around. They didn’t have to sniff long before, sure enough, BLM nabs an arsonist. The “name not released” yoyo ‘fessed up. It seems he’d taken his garbage out to the forest and dumped it.
Evidently, his brain—not his conscience—wouldn’t leave him alone. You can almost see him, tossing and turning in bed that night. “What if my fingerprints are on some of that trash?” That’s the essence of what he told investigators.
It would never do to go back the next day and pick up the trash and take it to the dump. Instead, the next day the genius takes diesel, dumps it on his trash, lights it, and takes off.
A piece of advice from the feds
District Chief Ranger Damian Hayes has a piece of advice for anyone—dumb crook or not. “Remember, this is not the place to get rid of unwanted garbage. Please take it to your local dump.”
Hayes added, “It’s our job to protect public lands for the enjoyment of current and future generations. We take dumping very seriously and ask members of the public to call us if they see dumping or other natural resource crimes on BLM land.”
Contact information for BLM offices across Oregon and Washington is available on the BLM website. Click here.
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##RVT1168b
Yoyo is correct. OUT to dump AND then BACK home, then OUT again to light AND then BACK home again. Once OUT of jail, he should be BACK again to clean up.
Clean-up should be mandatory in addition to a heavy fine.