I was hunting the muzzleloader elk season and I decided to make a loop out of camp that would take me back to the access road about 3 miles down from camp. The season was 7 days long, but I had an appointment that I just couldn’t get out of on Tuesday morning. It was Monday afternoon, So I wanted to get back to camp in time to break camp and get on the road before dark. I was hoofing it back up the road, that was nothing more than tire tracks through the brush that cut through 10 inches of hard packed snow. Then I heard a car. I thought it odd because the car was obviously going very fast, and I didn’t think I was close enough to the highway to hear the traffic. I soon realize that the car was on my road, so I stepped off into the brush to let it pass. A Jeep Cherokee zipped by me going at least 50mph probably more, then stopped less than 100 yards away. I had a bad feeling about the people in that Jeep, but I really wanted to get back and wasn’t going to wait for them to leave. I was uneasy enough that I capped and cocked my stuffer before approaching them. There was one guy outside the Jeep who had just relieved himself in the snow then a girl and another guy in the back seat. The guy told me they were hunting but hadn’t seen any deer. Archery deer season was open, but they sure didn’t look like they were bow hunting. I went on my way and didn’t think too much more about it until driving out just after dark when we saw the Jeep. It was on its roof, out in the brush. We checked it out, but nobody was around. There was camping gear spread all around and a small backpack that had spilled what looked like keepsakes a young girl might have in her bedroom. We though it a bit odd but figured they had walked out to get help. We were less than two miles from the highway, so we figured they were probably all right and we went on our way.
The next afternoon while driving back to our camping spot we reached the place the jeep had left the road. There was a sheriff deputy and a Forest Service LEO standing there. I told them my story and they were very surprised when I referred to the guy I talked to outside the jeep as a kid. They told me the Jeep was registered to a 58-year-old Hispanic man. I said, no, the kid was blond, blue eyed and no more than 20 -22 years old. Then they asked about the girl. They really wanted to know about the girl. So, I told them she looked very young and that she was laughing about something with the other guy in the jeep. They said they suspected the girl was a 14-year-old that had been reported as abducted on Saturday and asked if I was I sure she was laughing. I told them that she definitely looked like she was having a real good time. They were relieved to learn, that the girl might be a runaway and not an abductee and the owner of the jeep was no longer a suspect in that reported obduction. They then asked me to show them the spot where I had talked to the guy. As we were going back to the truck my buddy told me that the deputy wrote down my license plate number. When we got to the spot, the deputy said his partner thought I looked familiar, and could he please see some ID? Without missing a beat my partner asked them if they had ever looked at the FBI most wanted posters in the post office. I just laughed and told the LEO that we both worked for the Forest Service, out of the same building, and that I had seen him dozens of times around the office. The light bulb went on in his head and he then recognized me.
Later that week I met a guy who told me that after they had crashed the jeep they had sneaked into his camp and stolen his truck. He was mostly mad that his dog didn’t see fit to bark as someone was sneaking around camp stealing his truck. It turned out that the guy driving the Jeep to was 24, the girl was indeed the 14-year-old runaway and they had been on a little weeklong crime spree out there in the woods. They had stolen three vehicles, a lot of camping gear, and one handgun. He had that gun on his hip when I saw him. They stole food, a lot of booze, and whatever else wasn’t tied down. When the cops stopped them, they ran off into the woods and tried to bury themselves in the snow. All that did was make them cold and wet. I never did hear anything about the other guy I saw in the Jeep. The worst part is I never did kill an elk.
The next afternoon while driving back to our camping spot we reached the place the jeep had left the road. There was a sheriff deputy and a Forest Service LEO standing there. I told them my story and they were very surprised when I referred to the guy I talked to outside the jeep as a kid. They told me the Jeep was registered to a 58-year-old Hispanic man. I said, no, the kid was blond, blue eyed and no more than 20 -22 years old. Then they asked about the girl. They really wanted to know about the girl. So, I told them she looked very young and that she was laughing about something with the other guy in the jeep. They said they suspected the girl was a 14-year-old that had been reported as abducted on Saturday and asked if I was I sure she was laughing. I told them that she definitely looked like she was having a real good time. They were relieved to learn, that the girl might be a runaway and not an abductee and the owner of the jeep was no longer a suspect in that reported obduction. They then asked me to show them the spot where I had talked to the guy. As we were going back to the truck my buddy told me that the deputy wrote down my license plate number. When we got to the spot, the deputy said his partner thought I looked familiar, and could he please see some ID? Without missing a beat my partner asked them if they had ever looked at the FBI most wanted posters in the post office. I just laughed and told the LEO that we both worked for the Forest Service, out of the same building, and that I had seen him dozens of times around the office. The light bulb went on in his head and he then recognized me.
Later that week I met a guy who told me that after they had crashed the jeep they had sneaked into his camp and stolen his truck. He was mostly mad that his dog didn’t see fit to bark as someone was sneaking around camp stealing his truck. It turned out that the guy driving the Jeep to was 24, the girl was indeed the 14-year-old runaway and they had been on a little weeklong crime spree out there in the woods. They had stolen three vehicles, a lot of camping gear, and one handgun. He had that gun on his hip when I saw him. They stole food, a lot of booze, and whatever else wasn’t tied down. When the cops stopped them, they ran off into the woods and tried to bury themselves in the snow. All that did was make them cold and wet. I never did hear anything about the other guy I saw in the Jeep. The worst part is I never did kill an elk.