Illinois Woman Is Going To Jail For Messing Around With Grizzly Bears
A Carol Stream woman pleaded guilty on Wednesday of this week to willfully remaining, approaching and photographing wildlife within 100 yards. The wildlife she chose to do this with was a grizzly bear mom and her cubs.
Yellowstone National Park has had to put rules in place over the years because of people who think they're dealing with Winnie the Pooh rather than one of North America's most fearsome predators. You know the routine; if enough tourists get mauled or eaten, it starts to give a place a reputation.
Come Within 100 Yards Of Yellowstone's Bears And/Or Wolves, And Go To Jail
The 25 year old Carol Stream woman named Samantha R. Dehring knows that now, as an Illinois judge just sentenced her to four days in jail for not getting clear of an area when the mom grizzly and a couple of her cubs came wandering into view.
According to a report in the Billings Gazette:
On May 15, Dehring was visiting the Roaring Mountain area of the park when she and a small group of other tourists spotted the sow bear and her two cubs. The sow was about 15 feet from the woman, investigators state in court records.
Witnesses told investigators that when they saw the bears coming closer, they returned to their vehicles and warned Dehring to also get back, “but, she did not,” charges state.
She Might Have Gotten Away With It, But Others There Had Their Phones Out
Years ago, when every human walking around didn't have a high-definition camera in their pocket, Ms. Dehring probably would have walked away from Yellowstone in complete anonymity. However, that wasn't the case here. In May, Yellowstone posted this photo on their Facebook page, hoping that someone could identify the person who violated park rules and got too close to the bears. It obviously worked: