Many national park employees are woefully underpaid. A lot of them have masters degrees or even PhDs in their fields of study, and they have to work seasonally for decades sometimes before a permanent job will open in a particular park. So one woman did something about it, she embezzled $750,000 from Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado over the course of four years. It’s good to be assertive at work when you ask for pay increases, but I’ve found it’s also good to try and avoid going to jail.

Stone cold killer.

A New York man who regularly sees 10 to 15 deer hanging out in his yard in the morning was planning on going for a walk when he saw a buck crash through a window and into his workshop. He grabbed a shovel and headed for the workshop, intent on using it to shoo the deer out of his home and into his yard. It was a good thing he grabbed a shovel instead of a broom for the shooing. The moment he walked into the workshop, the deer lunged at him. The guy knocked it away with the shovel, but it kept coming back for more, “I am in the battle of my life. I was just defending myself. It was either me or the deer.” Thankfully, it wasn’t the deer giving the reporter quotes once the dust settled.

Thanks Adventure Journal

A woman who hopped a free ride down the gondola at Killington ended up sitting in the gondola car for 5 hours while police searched the resort’s trails for her. A man waiting for her in the parking lot reported the woman missing, and local police took to searching. It wasn’t until after calling her name and walking up and down the trials that they began shining lights into the gondolas. The staff at the top of the hill that works the gondola is supposed to ensure the cars are all empty before they head down themselves, and there’s speculation that the woman may have tried to hop a ride hobo-style to save the $10 fee.  And now it sounds like Killington isn’t going to press charges. The lesson here? There is no lesson.

Thanks Adventure Journal

Jay Peak in Vermont has agreed to pay an $80,000 fine for filing in wetlands with debris from construction of a golf course from 2004 to 2008. The current Jay Peak owner says that the two acres of destroyed wetland and streams happened before he came on board. Ugh, the only thing worse than playing golf is golfing on filled in wetland. Couldn’t they have built the golf course on an old toxic waste site? If you haven’t bought your season pass to Jay Peak yet this year, might I suggest taking up backcountry skiing? I know a place where you can get some great gear, and I haven’t filled in any marshes or streams with debris for several years.

via Adventure Journal

A young Olympic swimmer told people that he’d been hit by a careless driver while riding his bike around town. The accident resulted in his breaking two bones in his elbow. Police found an eyewitness who contradicted the story. What did the eyewitness see? The swimmer falling off a skateboard with no cars of any kind in the vicinity. He broke down and told the truth, and now faces about six weeks out of the pool while the rest of his teammates train. At least he has a cool excuse for missing the Olympics, it’s not like he was Rollerblading.