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Morons of the week - Gutenberg - 12-03-2009
Couple got stuck for two nights in the woods while hunting for their Christmas tree.
Rescuers went out and hunted for them. Helicopters, snowmobiles, dogs, the whole shebang.
See the highlighted bit at the foot of the story. Please, somebody tell me these idiots are going to get belted for expenses.
By JEFF BARNARD, Associated Press Writer
MEDFORD, Ore. – An Oregon couple hunting for a Christmas tree in mountains near the California border spent two days stuck in more than a foot of snow before freeing their all-wheel drive vehicle and returning home Thursday morning.
Jennifer and Keith Lee told Jackson County sheriff's deputies their Subaru got high-centered on a remote road leading into California on the south side of Mount Ashland.
"It was like something you see on TV news," Jennifer Lee said. "It was really surreal — not like it was really happening to us."
The couple had taken blankets and water bottles, but they didn't have much food, she said.
"Neither one of us had any appetite, believe it or not," Jennifer Lee said.
On Thursday, she said her husband put rocks under the wheels of the Subaru and managed to maneuver it to hard ice in order to free it.
"We got up at about 5 a.m. and he said we're not staying here another night," Jennifer Lee said.
She said they called home as soon as they got into cell phone range but nobody answered. When they heard about the search on the car radio, they called 911 and talked to Jackson County sheriff's deputies.
Jennifer Lee said the couple had two maps and knew exactly where they were, but had no way to communicate.
The couple got home in time to see their four children, ages 8 to 18, off to school.
"There were definitely lots of tears of joy," Jennifer Lee said.
Like thousands of Oregonians each year, the Lees bought their Christmas tree permit from the local national forest office and headed into the mountains.
The couple first went tree hunting Monday but didn't find what they wanted, so they set out again Tuesday after the kids went to school. Jennifer Lee asked a friend to pick up their 8-year-old daughter.
The first question the youngest child asked the couple was whether they got a prize silvertip fir, which grows at high elevations.
"We did get the tree," Lee said.
The search began Wednesday with a helicopter, Sno-Cats and ATVs for Jennifer, 38, and Keith, 36, who also got stuck briefly last year while getting their tree.
Re: Morons of the week - kj4btkljv - 12-03-2009
It sounds innocent enough to me, so I'm not sure on how to answer the poll.
Jeff
Re: Morons of the week - OWC Jamie - 12-03-2009
I'd get my panties all a knotted, but no guns were involved.
Re: Morons of the week - Jimmypoo - 12-03-2009
Where is the option for:
"Have a judge witness their buying a cell phone, and if they exceed the cell tower
range next year, the cell phone must explode with enough power to sever the head and arms of
the user (for going out too far)."
Loosing contact with a cell tower will trigger the 2 hour count down of whether the battery/plastic explosives (the booster) goes off on its own, just for a penalty.
As for this time -- how about losing their kids to DFCS for 1 month? They are lucky there was an 18
year old there--- but LAST year there wasn't....
Re: Morons of the week - volcs0 - 12-03-2009
Not sure what they did wrong... they got stuck, they managed to keep from dying in the cold, and then they freed themselves. Without cell reception, I'm not sure what else they could have done (besides not going in the first place).
Re: Morons of the week - Jimmypoo - 12-03-2009
volcs0 wrote:
Not sure what they did wrong... they got stuck, they managed to keep from dying in the cold, and then they freed themselves. Without cell reception, I'm not sure what else they could have done (besides not going in the first place).
They repeated the same event twice, life threatening, with 4 kids at home, all for a fsckin' tree.
That puts a major question mark on their ability for judgment about putting themselves and their
family (left behind) in life threatening situations.
Re: Morons of the week - Blankity Blank - 12-03-2009
kj4btkljv wrote:Same here. Was there a search last year too? Is getting "high centered" something that can happen to anybody? Getting stuck two years in a row is unlucky for certain, but if they were under different circumstances, does that automatically make you a moron?
It sounds innocent enough to me, so I'm not sure on how to answer the poll.
Jeff
Re: Morons of the week - Mike Johnson - 12-03-2009
They didn't call for help, so why should they be charged for the search?
"Leave them up in the woods next time" -- as I understand it, they were stuck overnight but got themselves out and drove back home.
I can't count how many times I've been briefly stuck while out screwing around in the forest or the desert. Nothing wrong with that. It's part of exploring. Getting permanently stuck, that's a problem.
In general, I think we're way too quick to castigate people who require rescue. When we make people scared to swim in the ocean or hike in the mountains or drive off a paved road, we make them more dependent on others, not less.
Plus, everybody makes mistakes. It might happen when you're backing up your QuickBooks, might happen when you're sailing across a shipping channel.
Now, people who take a PLB or cell phone on a strenuous hike because they have no intention of actually completing it on foot? They should go to prison.
http://blog.coloradohikingtrails.net/2009/03/cost-for-ride-down-pikes-peak-could-now.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33470581/ns/us_news-life/
Re: Morons of the week - DP - 12-03-2009
What jimmypoo said. Not to mention learning how to drive an all-wheel vehicle and what those limitations are.
Re: Morons of the week - bazookaman - 12-03-2009
DP wrote:
What jimmypoo said. Not to mention learning how to drive an all-wheel vehicle and what those limitations are.
No kidding. Any road that you can high center your vehicle on is not a road you need to be on if you don't know what you are doing.