I am required to carry a radio with me each time I am out in the field. It’s a safety thing. 2 pm Friday afternoon at Park Avenue, the radio waves came alive with squawking and chatter at about the time I saw two Ranger vehicles (that is, Law Enforcement) race northward with lights and sirens. I couldn’t make out any of the code words the dispatcher seemed to be using, and besides, I was there to teach my visitors about birds. But there was a LOT of radio traffic. I turned the volume down.
Next day I ran into one of the guys I knew could tell me something. “What was all that radio chatter about yesterday?” I inquired. He leaned forward and said quietly, “Fleeing felon.” “In the park?!?!” “We didn’t exactly know where he was, so UT highway patrol asked for our assistance.” A bit unsettling, not knowing where the felon was, I thought to myself.
What had happened was that a routine traffic stop on the freeway exit up at the north end of the park (no access into park) found a buttload of drugs, and the driver fled on foot into the desert. Grand Co. Sheriff, UT highway patrol, and Arches law enforcement folks joined together to find him. He went into hiding, and even with a helicopter to search the slot canyons, was not found. After five hours of searching, the Arches LE people were allowed to return to their former duties, because the guy was not a serial killer and posed no threat.
At 9:30 pm, a dehydrated individual walked into a gas station and asked for a drink of water. He was arrested and jailed. Don’t you love it when the ecosystem does what all our technology fails to do???
good hiding places, but no water
Ranger Kathryn's Arches 
I am surprised that the ecosystem did not add sentencing (in a variety of nasty forms) to his detection and apprehension. That does NOT look like the kind of terrain where one would want to be crouching among the rocks for hours at a time. He was lucky not to become buzzsrd bait.
d
Comment by Dad — July 22, 2009 @ 10:40 am |
I am surprised that the ecosystem did not add sentencing (in a variety of nasty forms) to his detection and apprehension. That does NOT look like the kind of terrain where one would want to be crouching among the rocks for hours at a time. He was lucky not to become buzzard bait.
d
Comment by Dad — July 22, 2009 @ 10:41 am |
scary!
Comment by Kathy — July 27, 2009 @ 12:21 am |