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Alaska State Troopers - Season 9 - Episode 03: Lost In The Woods
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TVTranscript
00:22One mistake out here could be the difference between life or death.
00:25You have no idea what you're going to encounter.
00:30People come up here, and when they're on the run, he's through there, and we'll find him.
00:34The allure to Alaska is just how wild it can be.
00:41Stop, and you're going to get tasered.
00:43Stop.
00:44This is Alaska State Troopers.
00:45You're on the left.
00:47Oh, stop.
00:49You don't have a boring day as a State Trooper in Alaska.
00:52Backfire, backfire, go to the ground shop.
00:53State Troopers, do not move.
00:55Let me see your hand.
00:56Hold still.
01:09We got an incident that came in earlier today on the previous shift.
01:14It's a spouse that's calling from Texas because her husband reportedly came up here to go wolf hunting with one
01:21of his friends.
01:22She doesn't know who this friend is.
01:24Supposed to be getting on a boat to head down to a cabin that's down in the Nenana area.
01:30She started getting messages that said, I fell in the water, lost, cold.
01:35So I was looking through the messages you just sent us.
01:39It sounded like he fell into the water, said that he was sitting on the riverbank naked, and he was
01:45really cold.
01:46Then it was immediately after that that he started sending messages like this dude he was with being weird and
01:52suspicious.
01:53And then the last thing that he sent was, send help, I think.
02:09Yeah, we're going to see if we can get a helo to fly the river and look for an orange
02:13raft.
02:14This is our last cell phone ping, is right here, the most recent one we have.
02:18It seems like they're going to be north of this area, but I could be wrong.
02:21It's a huge search area that we're going to have to start searching.
02:24Is the cabin before Nenana, after?
02:26Is it in a slough?
02:28We just don't know.
02:28Well, we'll probably just start doing some serpentining.
02:32I'm guessing they're on the far side.
02:34Okay.
02:41Fairbanks, ELO 2, is airborne in route.
02:45We don't know where they put it, so let's check on the riverbank.
02:48We're going to go hunting and stay at this cabin.
02:51It's neither of theirs cabin.
02:55Come go down this slough here.
02:59I got a little, that might be an orange raft.
03:03Nobody's with it.
03:05I don't see anybody on the shoreline.
03:08Is there gear there?
03:10There's something in the raft.
03:12I can't tell if it's a bag or a coat.
03:15Make sure there's not somebody laying down or...
03:18They'll loop that sound a couple times.
03:28Fairbanks, ELO 2.
03:29We just discovered an orange raft.
03:31Nobody's with it.
03:3210-4.
03:35I got a cabin.
03:38Yeah, that's completely abandoned.
03:40That's a boat right here.
03:43Yeah, there's people out here barbecuing.
03:47Fairbanks, ELO 2.
03:48Our caller reported that...
03:50...wandered out of the woods.
03:51Is that our guy?
03:51That's one of the names.
03:53...was the husband.
03:54He is completely naked.
03:57Naked?
03:57The caller was able to provide him a black sweatshirt.
04:00We do have medics in route.
04:03If they can see a trooper walking up to them,
04:05they should be pulling up now.
04:11Hey, man.
04:12How you doing?
04:14A lot better now.
04:15Okay.
04:16You want to tell me a little bit about what happened?
04:17So, me and my buddy were out going hunting and fishing.
04:20Who's your buddy?
04:22Ready to start some lunch,
04:24and...
04:26...they either were spraying tension.
04:28These two guys came up from behind us.
04:31One whacked him on the head.
04:33I think he's metal.
04:35Took him away, and the other guy knocked me out.
04:37I woke up with no clothes on and zip ties behind my back.
04:42My legs zip tie.
04:44You never saw the people?
04:45You just woke up like that?
04:47I saw them.
04:48Well, I saw the one that tapped me briefly,
04:51but I got a good visual on the other guy.
04:52Okay.
04:53Hey, we're going to take a stop right here.
04:54I want these guys to take a look at you real quick.
04:56Okay.
04:57Confirmed that it is the person that we're looking for.
04:59However, he's saying that we're still looking for at least one person,
05:03but possibly a group of people that may have been involved in a crime against him.
05:07We're going to go to that area.
05:09They just found the raft to figure out exactly what's going on.
05:17He's saying that they were jumped and basically held hostage by two people.
05:21He was able to escape.
05:22The other guy wasn't.
05:26Trying to find if there's another person who might be out here.
05:29We're also starting to fight the daylight here and flight hours for a kilo.
05:36What are they hunting out here?
05:38Wolf.
05:39Oh, really?
05:39Yeah.
05:40Typically, Alaskans aren't hunting wolves this time of year.
05:44Air tracks.
05:46Right.
05:48Right up here.
05:54It's not exactly go out and spend some time hunting type of year.
06:00Pool toy.
06:01That's what we classify that as.
06:05So this would be a logical place.
06:07Somebody might stop.
06:09It's clearly visible from the main channel.
06:12State troopers!
06:14If you're up here, please speak to me.
06:18State troopers!
06:22I wanted to see if there was any signs that somebody had a campfire.
06:25I'm not seeing anything.
06:27It's clear that nobody got into it.
06:32Nothing up there.
06:32No fires.
06:33No nothing.
06:34There's no indication that he was with another person.
06:36I was texting with investigator Bell.
06:38He says that he's confident the guy's lying.
06:40He's not showing any injuries, especially consistent with what he's saying has happened.
06:44Why?
06:45I don't know.
06:46I'm kind of interested about what can the spouse tell us about mental health.
06:49Kind of having like into the wild vibes, right?
06:52Kind of running away from home.
06:53I'm going to buy a Walmart tent and a Walmart thing of jerky.
06:58Where's the hunting stuff?
06:59Yeah.
06:59You know?
07:01All right.
07:02Let's go home.
07:08We just got off the river.
07:09Once we found his stuff, we finally could link him back to the truck in the parking lot.
07:14How did you guys know about this?
07:15He told us.
07:16Okay.
07:17This is the stuff that was in the raft.
07:19This is a raft that one would take their family on to go maybe float the china.
07:24It's the pellet gun, which you might shoot birds with.
07:30Trust me.
07:30He ain't no wolf with that.
07:32No.
07:32Did he come clean and say he was the only one or?
07:35No.
07:35He still had fell under the place.
07:37He's saying that he had gone out there ahead of time, ahead of, uh, and was already on
07:44the other side of the river and was dropped off in a john boat.
07:46They didn't go out together.
07:48He kept changing that part of the story.
07:49This other guy was like six foot three and overpowered him and put him in zip ties.
07:54No defensive injuries at all.
07:56Nothing on his wrist indicating he was bound by a zip tie.
07:59He tried to go and text his wife, which is when she got the message that I'm being tortured,
08:04sent help.
08:04He said he's texted her with his tongue, and that's when he said he got up and ran away,
08:08and he swam in the tan and all.
08:10With his hands behind his back.
08:12He never said how he got out in the zip ties.
08:14Walked eight hours back up the river to get here.
08:18Yeah.
08:19He also doesn't have a plane ticket leaving the stage, only coming here.
08:26I think he was going out to, like, become lost.
08:29Like, I think that's what his intention was.
08:32Had they not found him or had he not, I don't know, like, come to his senses slash not, like,
08:38he would have gone out there and died.
08:39We have a good outcome in the sense that we're confident that we got somebody off the river
08:44who otherwise probably would have succumbed to the environment, wild animals, and just
08:50to nature as a whole.
08:51He's safe, but we are confident that there is nobody else back out on the river.
09:11I'm Trooper Nick Blanchard.
09:14My dad's law enforcement, granddad was law enforcement, brother's law enforcement in
09:18the Chicagoland area.
09:19I like Alaska a whole lot more than the Midwest.
09:22The wildlife, the mountains, hunting and fishing is my life's great big adventure to come up
09:27here.
09:28Like, I did everything I could to get up here.
09:30So when I got to the academy, before my first paycheck hit, I had negative $20 in my bank
09:35account.
09:36So I was like, I'm here for the long haul, whether I like it or not.
09:39And it's the first job I've done that I enjoy putting on my uniform and coming into work
09:44every day.
09:45This area is a lot more rural, less interaction with law enforcement in general.
09:50You run into these individuals who have warrants.
09:52It's pretty typical of the area.
09:55I've got questions for this individual.
09:57I want to see him hit his brakes again.
10:02All right, so we're out doing some traffic.
10:03This individual in front of us.
10:05Trailer doesn't have any lights on it.
10:07You can't see his turn signals.
10:08He also has what I would describe as an unsecured load in the bed of his pickup.
10:11And we're going to stop and make contact with him.
10:15We're going to be a white Ford Ranger tone of trailer.
10:22Hey, stay in your car.
10:24We got a foot bail.
10:30Confirmed foot bail.
10:31Flood down Bluebird Drive.
10:32Approximately six foot.
10:33Black shirt and leather-colored pants.
10:40Mac on 35.
10:41It looks like he headed up Bluebird Drive.
10:43There's a portion of the road that's impassable by Explorer.
10:47I think another unit here we're going to try and follow.
10:49Yep.
10:50So he either dipped off into the woods on the left,
10:54and we missed him when we came through,
10:55or he went right down Bluebird because he knew I wouldn't be able to follow him in my vehicle.
10:59I would bet he's probably familiar with the area.
11:05And he is not in a position where he wants us to find him.
11:09So we're going to hang out down here and wait for backup.
11:11Generally a good idea if you're chasing someone.
11:13You don't know if he has a gun.
11:14You don't know what's going on.
11:30Mac on plate on that ranger's going to be...
11:36So obviously, head of foot bail is eluding us.
11:39I would assume he has a warrant,
11:41or has some other issue that he doesn't want to talk to us about.
11:45History with the plate we left contacted a...
11:49He's currently $10.99, selling $8,000 on the polymer set tune and gave two.
12:10Okay, so he took off down here.
12:11He ran down this road.
12:13I hopped in the car and took off.
12:14Thought maybe he'd go up here.
12:15I turned this way.
12:17Come back down here.
12:17There's a giant berm.
12:19If he knew it was there, he knew I wouldn't have been able to get over my car.
12:21So I think he went that way out towards the parks.
12:24Okay, let's go back to where we last saw and work from there on foot.
12:28Okay.
12:30I don't know if you heard Mac on the last person contacted,
12:32and that vehicle has a felony warrant.
12:35Okay.
12:36There's push down grass right here where I'm standing,
12:38and that was not for me.
12:42Is that a footprint?
12:44It does kind of seem like there's a trail down.
12:49Mac on 35.
12:50From the short look I got on him when he eluded,
12:53I believe it is going to be our subject.
12:56Hey, man.
12:57What's up?
12:58What's up?
12:58Hey.
12:59Trooper Blanchard, State Troopers.
13:00I just had a fellow run from me.
13:02All right.
13:02You know a fellow named...
13:05Okay.
13:06All right.
13:12Hey, boss.
13:14Yeah.
13:15I got some tracks coming up in here.
13:16Okay.
13:17We'll come down.
13:18So a trail in, in, but that one is very clearly out.
13:23Something knocked the plants out over this way.
13:26We've heard some twig snaps over here.
13:29I think we'd come up and just see if there's anything broken in here.
13:40Maybe he came left.
13:41Is that a print over there?
13:48Is that a deal?
14:06We followed what we thought might be a trail and just kind of died out.
14:11The easiest way to deal with warrants is to turn yourself in and deal with the warrant.
14:16When you add all this extra stuff, we tend to get pretty invested.
14:19Now that he's run from me and I know who he is, we're going to be looking for him.
14:32Central.
14:33I put the mail walking along the side of Middle Lake.
14:36I positively identified him because the black shirt and the jeans, so.
14:44Hey, how you doing?
14:46Yep.
14:47You're under arrest.
14:48All right.
14:50I can't find your back.
14:52We just tromped through the woods after they tried stopping you?
14:56Yeah, I guess.
14:58Well, you got to wait for a little bit.
14:59Back up to I-14.
15:01I've got a 1080 on.
15:03He was just walking down Middle Lake Loop.
15:20Trooper Stevens, with the Alaska State Troopers, I'm assigned to the Statewide Drug Enforcement Unit Highway Interdiction Team.
15:27I'm a single-purpose canine handler, so I handle canine Bruce, who's in the back here.
15:33Bruce is a four-year-old Belgian Malinois.
15:35I've had him for about two years.
15:36He's a drug detection canine.
15:38He's trained on meth, heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl.
15:43It's pretty nice.
15:44I go to work every day, so I go to work every day, and I've got a partner with me,
15:47so pretty lucky in that aspect.
15:50My mission as an Alaska State Trooper is public safety.
15:53Hands down.
16:02So it's a Friday night.
16:04A lot of people are getting off, are already off work, and they're going to be out on our roads
16:08enjoying what Alaska has to offer.
16:11That also comes with people who make more decisions.
16:24I'm going to stop this van, I don't have any mudflaps, and the passenger didn't have a seatbelt on.
16:44He is not wanting to stop.
16:46He was pointing his finger like we're going up here.
16:55Back in November 66, we'll be pulling in.
17:08Go ahead and get out for me.
17:12Put your hands on your back.
17:19Weren't you stopping?
17:21I'm trying to get the fan in the yard, just for you, grabbing me.
17:24You got a warrant?
17:26Sure.
17:26Okay.
17:27Well, you need to stop.
17:29I would have let someone come get the van.
17:31Okay, go ahead and have a seat for me.
17:32Okay, what's your warrant for, bud?
17:34It's for missing court.
17:36Missing court?
17:37Just like a fellow up here.
17:38What's the original charge?
17:40Is there any legal narcotics in your vehicle right now?
17:43You mind if I...
17:43Can I search your vehicle to make sure you don't have any legal narcotics in there?
17:46Rather not.
17:47Okay, would you consent to me running my drug dog on the exterior vehicle?
17:50Outside the vehicle, yeah.
17:52Okay.
17:53All right, I'll do that real quick.
17:54Okay, then we'll get you in the way, all right?
17:57He drove for over a quarter mile, I mean half a mile, before he wanted to stop and pull
18:04in here, but he did consent to running the drug dog on the exterior of the vehicle.
18:08So we're going to do that.
18:09Typically, people who are having illegal contraband in their vehicle don't want law enforcement
18:14to search it, which is their right, but we have a tool, which is the canine, to, you
18:21know, maybe take another step in the investigative process, reach a probable cause where we can
18:24impound the vehicle and apply for search warrants to search the vehicle if the judge sees that
18:29we do have probable cause.
18:35Okay, come on.
18:39Biscuit.
18:46Boy, it's doors.
18:47Biscuit.
18:53Biscuit.
19:20Dog didn't want to work.
19:22He's more worried about dog pee, so he's like any dude, he's a dog.
19:27Yeah.
19:28Canines are a lot like humans, we all have bad days.
19:31He was not interested in working today.
19:33He did not want anything to do with searching, and that's okay.
19:39So the vehicle's going to stay here, he's going to go gelling his warrant, and we're going
19:44to get off this property.
19:54It's been a morning so far, we have a missing nine-year-old that's now been missing for 14,
20:0115 hours.
20:02Sounds like she was going through the neighborhood and knocking on doors, asking if anyone was
20:07willing to take a kid in for the night.
20:09If she knocks on the wrong door in the middle of the night, she could easily end up being
20:14abducted or something like that.
20:15So we want to find her as quickly as we can.
20:19We also have information that her older sister has previously ran off, and we know the house
20:25that she was recovered at.
20:26So I'm going to go grab another trooper or two, and we're going to go check that house
20:31in just a minute.
20:34We had one of our wildlife troopers up in an airplane helping us search for her.
20:38He came across the radio and said that he was having some engine trouble.
20:41Well, this doesn't happen every day.
20:44What happened?
20:45They just shut off on him?
20:46It's not working yet.
20:47While he was helping search from the air, Trooper Pyle landed on this busy street out here
20:53to save himself.
20:54We've lost troopers in the past due to aircraft or helicopter issues.
20:58I'm glad that he's safe.
20:59Hopefully the plane will be fine and we can get him back up in the air.
21:06We're about to shut down traffic here.
21:09The mechanics have determined it was just an environmental issue that caused the plane
21:15to shut down.
21:15So I think it's good to go and get him back to an airport.
21:22I've never seen this before.
21:25It's not the typical 9 to 5 job.
21:28Always something different you need.
21:33So we have a 9-year-old that's now been missing for 15 hours.
21:37She could easily end up being abducted or something like that.
21:40So we want to find her as quickly as we can.
21:43Her older sister has previously ran off and we know the house that she was recovered at.
21:48So I'm going to go check that house.
21:51Do you know a girl named ?
21:53Yeah, that's my little sister.
21:55I'm waiting for my sister.
21:55Oh, your older sister.
21:59Okay, where would be right now?
22:02I have no clue.
22:02My cousin's over here to come get me so we can all go talk with the family and try to
22:05figure it out.
22:06Okay.
22:06Has she ever like ran off like this before?
22:09Mm-mm.
22:09No?
22:10Never.
22:11She's always just went to the park and then came right around.
22:13Okay.
22:14Just let us know if you guys find her, okay?
22:17We'll be looking for her still too.
22:43She's saying she thinks she's in a car with older people.
22:46And they're going to drop her off there.
22:49So we've finally made contact with this young girl that's ran away.
22:53She's in somebody's vehicle, unknown who yet.
22:57But she just told one of our troopers that she's going to head to possibly a friend's house.
23:03I'm going to head over there and see if I can be there waiting for her when she gets there.
23:06That way we can recover her and get her home safe.
23:15Hi.
23:17Hey, can you do me a favor and go talk to that trooper over there?
23:20Yeah.
23:22How did you guys get in your vehicle?
23:25We found her at the park.
23:27Okay.
23:27She told us that she was going to be staying there alone.
23:32I wasn't comfortable leaving her there.
23:34And so I asked her if she would, you know, rather be at my house.
23:38So she was with you guys all night?
23:40Yes.
23:40Is there any reason you didn't call us last night?
23:42We didn't know what was happening.
23:46I mean, she's a little kid, though, all by herself.
23:48Yeah.
23:49If we told her we would call you guys, she already told us she was running.
23:52Okay.
23:53So we wanted her to be somewhere safe.
23:55Okay.
23:55And we didn't find out she was like an actual runaway until this morning.
23:58And that's when we brought her here.
23:59Okay.
24:00What did she tell you?
24:01She said she ran away from home.
24:04Met them at Wonderland Park last night.
24:07All right.
24:08You guys are good to go.
24:09Just in the future, if you guys, like, find a stray kid, call us.
24:13We'd like to know about that.
24:14Troopers are running all over town looking for this girl,
24:16and you guys are just holding her up at your house.
24:19You can see how that'd be, like, a little frustrating to us, right?
24:21Yeah.
24:22Yeah.
24:23We have the missing juvenile.
24:25You can take her out of runaway status.
24:29We found the juvenile.
24:30One of the troopers is taking her back home.
24:32Seems like she made some friends at the park overnight,
24:35and they decided to just take her home and stay with them
24:38instead of contacting law enforcement or her family.
24:42So thankfully it all ended well.
24:56Sergeant Rafferty, the Alaska State Troopers based out of Nome,
24:59Today we are going out to the villages.
25:02We got a report out there of a female who has been desecrating the local cemetery.
25:07Last report we got was that she has damaged over 50 gravestones
25:12and has been breaking into some people's houses.
25:14It's a big problem for the community.
25:16These are people's loved ones that are in there,
25:18and desecration of a grave in Alaska is actually a felony.
25:22Some of the biggest challenges that I deal with being out here in Nome
25:26is really logistics.
25:29Getting two calls for service sometimes are extremely difficult,
25:33or going out to the village.
25:36You never know if you're going to end up getting stuck out there.
25:39Weather changes pretty rapidly,
25:41and if it deteriorates to a point where the plane can't come get you,
25:45you could be stuck in the village for days and days.
25:55We've had quite a few calls regarding this woman in the last few months.
26:00For whatever reason, she just keeps going to the cemetery and damaging things.
26:05But it sounds like last night she was caught doing it,
26:08and the mayor was able to get her into a holding cell
26:12and hold her until we were able to get into town.
26:15There's the cemetery.
26:17Oh, wow. Yeah.
26:19Quite a few classes knocked down here.
26:38Hey, Robbie.
26:41The elder made to see that from the first time,
26:44the family had tried to just put it back up,
26:46and she tore it down even more the second time.
26:48Okay.
26:48I'm probably going to charge her individually for every single one.
26:54My mom was asked to look at one of the new ones that she's broke with my brothers.
26:58Yeah.
26:59She was after the first charge, so...
27:01Yep, for sure.
27:02There's just crosses down everywhere.
27:05It's probably 70 or 80 damaged graves that are out here right now.
27:10I believe each one of these is a separate memorial
27:14belonging to a separate person,
27:15so each one would be its own felony charge.
27:24It's super sad.
27:26All of these people have family who are still here,
27:30and a lot of them are elders and World War II veterans
27:33and all kinds of different types of people.
27:36Their stuff's just knocked over and damaged, so...
27:38It's not great.
27:39Trooper Barrett said he also was told that she had, like,
27:42broken into someone's house in the last week or so.
27:44By her auntie.
27:45Okay.
27:45And she was kind of panicked because she found her fridge naked.
27:52Okay.
27:53She's already in custody.
27:55She admitted to everything she was accused of,
27:58both the breaking into her aunt's house
28:00as well as the separate times that she came to the cemetery.
28:05We were able to isolate 80 different graves that she caused damage to,
28:10each one of those being its own felony-level criminal mischief charge.
28:14We also investigated a burglary,
28:16so she's got a burglary, a theft, and an assault.
28:21So I talked to the city.
28:23They already have a crew working on replacement crosses.
28:26Oh, nice you're out here.
28:27So now that we're able to remove her from the community,
28:30they're going to get to work this week
28:32and fixing all these crosses
28:33and getting the cemetery put back together.
28:52The media does a great job
28:54of capturing the landscape
28:57and the wildlife
28:58and the grandiose size of Alaska.
29:03But there's not a lot of emphasis on the people.
29:06And I've got to tell you,
29:07the people are super handy.
29:09They're super thoughtful, super resourceful.
29:12Your neighbor will give you the shirt off their back.
29:15So it's definitely the people.
29:22We just got a report of a single vehicle rollover
29:26on Wasilla Fish Hook.
29:28We get a lot of single vehicle crashes out there
29:30with impaired drivers.
29:32There's a male laying on the ground next to the vehicle.
29:35There's somebody just laying.
29:37That's typically not a good sign.
29:40That's a very popular spot to come and visit.
29:43They'll stop and look at the river
29:44and not pay attention to what's going on behind them,
29:47which would cause an accident.
29:49Back in 1823.
29:51So it just looks like it came,
29:52straightened out the curve here,
29:54ended up flying off the embankment.
30:06They're getting the sled out,
30:07at least for one patient.
30:10We've got one of our trainees
30:11who's going to take primary on this.
30:14Check the car out real quick.
30:19You smell that, right?
30:20What?
30:22I can't smell it.
30:23Oh, it's all over the place.
30:25Yeah.
30:27Those are bald as a baby's bottom.
30:31This one's in really, really bad shape.
30:33There's a couple things that are of concern.
30:36There are bald tires.
30:38The other issue is this very strong smell of marijuana.
30:42I've advised the primary investigator.
30:44He's going to take the driver up,
30:46see whether or not what's in his system
30:47is impairing his ability to drive.
30:49You were in the car?
30:51Yeah.
30:52And then everyone else who's up there?
30:53Yep.
30:55So how are you feeling?
30:57Just the side of my neck hurts.
30:59He broke my fall all the way down.
31:00Were you wearing a seatbelt?
31:02I was about to jump out,
31:03but nobody else did, so I just closed the door.
31:04Worried about my brother.
31:06We went up to Hatcher's to go hiking,
31:08and then on our way back down, his brakes failed.
31:10He panicked, and we went flying down the hill.
31:13Every time we made impact, my brother was right behind me,
31:15and they took him off in the ambulance, so, I mean...
31:18What do you see, Sergeant?
31:21A samurai sword that was playing right in the back seat
31:23next to where the two unrestrained individuals
31:25were tossed around.
31:31They hit, came airborne, extremely hard.
31:34Airboard again, and then catapult,
31:36and then rolled down to where it came to rest.
31:39I am shocked that this is not a fatality accident
31:42with multiple unrestrained passengers.
31:45Obviously, the vehicle rolled.
31:47They are very lucky that nobody has lost their life on this one.
32:11Hello.
32:12I'm Trooper Jenny Ronstad.
32:14Today, we are headed to one of the small communities
32:17that the Fairbanks Rural Unit covers.
32:19Is there anything fragile in here?
32:21We have a lady that lives out there.
32:23She owns quite the pack of dogs,
32:25and one of the dogs bit one of the other community members.
32:28Clear!
32:29It gets loud in here.
32:31I'm Josh Moore.
32:32I've been a pilot since 2012,
32:35and I couldn't really do my job if I wasn't a pilot.
32:39Our farthest village is Caltech,
32:42which is like flying from Seattle to Medford, Oregon,
32:45just to go on a call.
32:49Oh, it was a good landing.
32:53I assume I can sit on this, yeah?
32:55Sweet.
32:57Ha-ha!
33:00A community member that's so nice
33:02and offered us a ride from the airport,
33:03so we are headed to go talk with the victim of the dog bite.
33:08Hi there.
33:09Welcome.
33:10Holy crap, that's so gorgeous.
33:13We have lots of food if you guys want to have a bunch of food
33:15before you go to work.
33:17What I want to do is go and tell her
33:19it's unacceptable having one of your dogs bite a person.
33:21I mean, everybody's got two sides of the story,
33:23so I want to hear that from her.
33:24Before I got bit,
33:25my wife said they were loosing our property.
33:28Well, and that's just the thing.
33:29And she's afraid to go out now.
33:30Having dogs that bite you,
33:32trespassing essentially on state lands,
33:34because she doesn't have to go home,
33:35but she can't stay here.
33:36Yeah, that's exactly right.
33:39Well, thanks for coming out.
33:40Yeah.
33:41I'm really glad you actually came out today,
33:43because this is like our biggest picnic of the year.
33:45Great.
33:46Thank you for having us.
33:46This was awesome.
33:47Yeah, thank you.
33:48Good.
33:48So, I appreciate it.
33:51We are borrowing a community member's boat.
33:54Ooh, it's a big boat.
33:56We're extremely reliant where we fly to most of our places
33:58on the community helping us with transport
34:00when we're out here.
34:02Yeah, no problem.
34:03Really appreciate it.
34:04No problem at all.
34:04Appreciate you guys.
34:06All right, be safe, you guys.
34:08We're headed out to an individual
34:10who answered a caretaker ad
34:13from one of the lodges here on the lake.
34:15She's got about 10 to 12 dogs,
34:17and she was kind of tearing up the place,
34:19to put it lightly.
34:20She was eventually evicted,
34:22and now she's living on the beach.
34:23She's got an obligation to move,
34:25or else we're going to have to arrest her.
34:28That's her, I assume?
34:29Yeah.
34:29That's, you can see her stuff up there.
34:46I'm here to talk to you about a couple things.
34:48Can you hear me?
34:50Can you tell me what happened with the dog bite?
34:53Are you sure he didn't hurt himself?
34:54Yeah, I've gotten bit before.
34:57I used to be a canine handler,
34:58so I know what it looks like.
35:00He got tagged on the upper right arm.
35:02Because one of your dogs bit, Paul,
35:04it puts you in a bad bind
35:06because it's a criminal negligence
35:09that you have animals that are biting people
35:10that are unrestrained.
35:11Now that you know, it's on you, okay?
35:15In two days, you've got to move your camp,
35:18and you've got to move it at least two miles.
35:20I'm moving on the first,
35:21so can't I just move on the first?
35:23On the first?
35:23Where are you going?
35:25Going down the river.
35:26Are you going down the river with the canoe?
35:29Is that the plan?
35:30I mean, I know it's not a very good plan.
35:32I'd probably just capsize it down.
35:37My concern is,
35:38I don't want you to get hurt in any way.
35:40I don't either.
35:42I'm mainly just concerned
35:43about my animal's life right now.
35:45Yeah, I would be happy to help you out with that,
35:48and I can talk to the community
35:50to get all of your dogs and goats
35:52and everything into Fairbanks.
35:53It's a genuine offer of transportation.
35:57If you could get a ride to town,
35:58then at least you're safe.
35:59You're probably getting some sleep.
36:01A place in Fairbanks
36:02might be a little bit more comfortable.
36:04What do you think?
36:05Yeah.
36:06Okay.
36:06How about we do that?
36:08But we're going to have to work
36:09with the people over there
36:10because I know that I'm not going to be able
36:12to get your dogs on that plane, okay?
36:15Okay.
36:16All right.
36:17We're going to get out of your hair, okay?
36:22Very Alaska-pleasing.
36:23This is the most Alaska thing I've seen.
36:26Hope you.
36:29How'd it go?
36:31A little well.
36:31Good.
36:32She is ready to get out of here.
36:35I'm just going to try and be back out here
36:36the 30th to grab her,
36:38and then if we can kind of community-wise
36:40grab the dogs at the same time,
36:42put them somewhere where they'll be safe.
36:44Hopefully she doesn't renege on the deal.
36:46That would be a huge step
36:47in the right direction for her.
36:48Definitely.
36:49And we're willing to do what we can
36:51to get them in the town.
36:52That's the kind of people
36:53we're talking about here.
37:12Hey!
37:17You all right if I touch your stuff?
37:19Okay.
37:21Right now, everything looks to be on track.
37:23Hey, no, no, no.
37:34She seems excited to get out of here.
37:36All the dogs are tied up out there.
37:38All the goats are tied up,
37:39and we're going to get her to Fairbanks.
37:42She's got a service dog.
37:44I'm not going to fight her with it.
37:46If she's happy to get into the airplane today,
37:48then we'll take this as a win.
37:53Okay, that's good.
37:55All right, are we ready?
37:57All right, well, God bless your next journey of life.
38:01Appreciate the help.
38:02We're on it.
38:03The people from out here are going to go
38:05gather up the dogs and take care of them.
38:07She's going to stay over at the women's shelter.
38:09We're going to store her stuff for a couple days,
38:11but we're not going to have 12 dogs starving
38:14in remote Alaska.
38:15This is probably a best-case scenario.
38:40I'm Trooper Peter Testa.
38:41The Army brought me up to Alaska.
38:43I was stationed at Fort Wainwright for three years.
38:45The biggest thing that we usually encounter is moose.
38:50They like to walk across roadways.
38:52People don't always have the time to stop when this happens.
38:55Usually in those circumstances, the cars are told on
38:58because moose are very big animals.
39:01So lots of accidents involving moose.
39:04Fairbanks, one day 24.
39:05I'm going to be 23.
39:07So we just got a report of a vehicle
39:10hit a, sounds like a baby moose.
39:13So it would just be right up the road here.
39:16If there was a baby, then there was probably a mom around.
39:19Yeah, as you can see, the damage on that car right there.
39:26So check on them real quick, make sure they're okay,
39:29and then try to look at the moose.
39:31But they appear to be fine, which is good.
39:36Hi, folks.
39:38You guys okay?
39:40Okay.
39:40You don't need any EMS or anything?
39:42No?
39:43Okay.
39:44And then it was just, see the moose there?
39:47Okay.
39:49Did you notice any other moose there now?
39:51Just that one?
39:51No.
39:52Okay.
39:52Do you have your license?
39:53Who was driving?
39:53I was.
39:54Okay.
39:55You know, your kids in the vehicle too?
39:56Yeah.
39:57They're okay?
39:57Okay.
39:58Okay.
40:00I assume you hit it head on?
40:02Yeah.
40:03I saw it as soon as it was like at the corner of the car and started to put my
40:06brakes on.
40:07Gotcha.
40:08I didn't put that on.
40:10Yeah.
40:11Still did quite a bit of damage, but luckily it didn't do more damage.
40:15Yes.
40:15So, do you guys have another ride?
40:18Yeah, I'm going to go check on the moose and I'll be right back.
40:22Okay.
40:31It's definitely a youngling, maybe about two or three.
40:38Looked like the moose died from the impact.
40:45Yeah, luckily everyone's okay, so that's what matters.
40:47Yeah.
40:49That's my daughter.
40:50I always tell them it's smaller than a moose, hit it.
40:54If it's a moose, try not to hit it.
40:57Shouldn't have hit it.
40:59I'll remember that next time.
41:02There won't be a next time, right?
41:05Look where we live, Dad.
41:09Fairbanks, 1D24.
41:10We're going to go ahead and start the next charity for the moose.
41:12So, call the next charity to come pick up the moose, so that way the meat doesn't go to waste.
41:18We have a list of people that get called out.
41:20They'll be able to come take the moose.
41:22You know, there's people out there that can definitely use the meat from the moose.
41:27Moose versus people.
41:29It's one of the unfortunate things we have to deal with out here.
41:32Poor baby.
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