Posted on 04/26/2012 12:10:43 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
LAS VEGAS - In a case that stunned authorities with its ruthlessness, two Utah men have been arrested in connection with a pair of deadly booby traps along a popular hiking trail outside Provo.
LAS VEGAS - In a case that stunned authorities with its ruthlessness, two Utah men have been arrested in connection with a pair of deadly booby traps along a popular hiking trail outside Provo.
One of the traps featured a tripwire meant to send a 20-pound spiked boulder swinging into an unsuspecting victim. The other was designed to trip a passerby into a bed of sharpened wooden stakes.
The suspects, Benjamin Steven Rutkowski, 19, and Kai Matthew Christensen, 21, were arrested last weekend on suspicion of misdemeanor reckless endangerment and have been released on bail. They told investigators the traps were intended for wildlife.
But authorities discounted that explanation.
“When you look at those things, you just get chills down your spine,” Utah County sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. “One sends a rock the size of a football speeding at your head. The other is even more nightmarish. Walk into that trap and either you get the worst headache of your life or a stick through your eye.”
He added: “There's no question these traps were set for humans and that these suspects knew their deadly potential.”
The booby traps were set at entrances to a popular makeshift wooden shelter used by local hikers as a sleepover and campfire site, Cannon said. The traps took time and energy to erect, he said, and involved rope and heavy-duty fishing line along with rocks and sticks.
The traps were discovered earlier this month by James Schoeffler of the U.S. Forest Service, an officer with military training in Iraq and Afghanistan who was patrolling Big Springs Trail in Provo Canyon outside the city of Provo.
He noticed the tripwires not far from a popular trail head and suspected they were designed to catch hikers walking in the dark, Cannon said. “He has experience ... that told him something didn't look right,” he said.
Said Schoeffler in an interview Wednesday: “There was a large children's birthday party that day and there were kids running up and down the trail. ... The possibility of one of them finding the fort (and setting off the trip wires) was a very real possibility.”
Schoeffler disabled the traps after taking photos and video of the site. He said that the traps lacked in sophistication, but were deadly nonetheless: “They were extremely rudimentary, but it works.”
Cannon said investigators received a tip from a local hiker who told authorities the men had posted comments on Facebook.
“This area was popular with families, children, people out to have a good time, and look what awaited them,” Cannon said. “These two suspects tried to convince me that these traps really didn't have risk to people, but I don't buy it.”
I don't. they look like morons who take pleasure in the inflicted misery of others.
Malicious Intent is a felony.... Or so I thought
Malicious Intent is a felony.... Or so I thought
If they want to help the environment, grant them their wish. Feed them to polar bears.
*g*...what an image...the snowcat driving across the snowy tundra...screaming envirowackos running after the snowcat...happy polar bear family following close behind...ain’t nature wonderful?
WTH is up with that first guy’s ears?”
It is called ear gauging. Essentially, they start with a large piercing and a black disc/earring is placed in it. The gauge stretches the skin and you then go up to the next size. Eventually, the lobe will stretch almost paper thin and hang very low. Plastic surgery is the only way to remedy the stupid idea. I saw a young man recently with lobes that stretched down about three inches. Disturbing to say the least. (aren’t you glad you asked?!)
I wonder if these idiot enviromentalist know how many animals and birds take a dump in those pristine parks, they wouldn't call them pristine...
Thanks MT3 I was wondering about the ears as well.
Leftist aka progressive treehuggers do the very same thing. They spike trees to injure lumberjacks. They dig booby traps on trails to damage and injure off road vehicle users.
Los Angeles is not a sophisticated urban area, LOL!!
AND, I did see a high school kid the other day with one of those plates in his lip!!
I live in illegal alien central — So California. There are Mexican men living all over in the bushes and hills around here, right off the hiking trails in the local mountains— and there have been several rapes of female joggers in the foothills. I know of a mountain biker who says he doesn’t go out now without his 9 MM.
I have a large police dog/pit bull mix that walks ahead of me and my little dog but I’m thinking of packing when I go out.
I hate that it’s come to this!!
Those holes are where you atatch the reins.
Giddy up big fella.
attach, it’s been a long day.
I live in Orange County and the chances of me getting a CCW are somewhere between next to impossible and never.
Of course this brings up the obvious, I'd rather be Judged by Twelve than Carried by Six.
Ridiculous isn't it? Unless something changes, I think that the most these two could get would be about a year. It was sickening enough just reading about it, but after seeing the traps and the throw backs who built them, I'm still hoping that perhaps a stronger charge can eventually be brought. It's the stuff of nightmares to know that they are out on bond.
Mile 250 would be a "light sentence" because they're young and dumb -those islands extend some 1200+ miles I believe. I guarantee you that, if they survived (highly questionable) they'd never commit another crime again, and even help old ladies walk across the street (and all it would cost us is some lousy helicopter fuel).
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