We had an incident here in central Alabama the other day. There is a boat ramp on the Alabama way out in the middle of nowhere. No one mans it, you just put your money in a box. Good ol’ boy went fishing. When he got back there was a note on his truck telling him that the ramp was closed due to the shutdown. He drove to the entrance and found it padlocked. He smashed the padlock with a hammer. The rangers showed up and told him they didn’t know anyone was using the ramp. He asked them “then who the ****” put the note on my truck.” The rangers backed off and let him go.
In your friend’s case had it been somewhere other than the middle of no where he’d have been charged with damaging federal property.
Being Egypt, AL where everyone knows everyone else eats and shops at the same joint, and knows where the Rangers live they did the smart thing and didn’t press it.