A man who taunted a bison in Yellowstone National Park, beating his chest and waving his arms at the animal, was arrested in Glacier National Park for harassing wildlife.
Glacier rangers arrested Raymond Reinke, age 55, from Pendleton, Oregon shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday, the two parks announced Friday. He was wanted after a video showing him approaching the bison on a Yellowstone park road went viral.
“We appreciate the collaboration of our fellow rangers in Glacier and Grand Teton national parks on this arrest. Harassing wildlife is illegal in any national park," said Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk on Friday.
According to park officials, Reinke had been traveling to multiple national parks over the last week. On July 28, he was first arrested by law enforcement rangers at Grand Teton National Park for a drunk and disorderly conduct incident, Yellowstone officials said, adding that he spent the night in the Teton County Jail, and was then released on bond.
Following his release, he traveled to Yellowstone National Park, where rangers stopped his vehicle for a traffic violation on July 31. Reinke appeared to be intoxicated and argumentative, they said. He was cited as a passenger for failure to wear a seat belt. It is believed that after that traffic stop, Reinke encountered the bison, the park release said.
Yellowstone rangers received several wildlife harassment reports from concerned visitors and found Reinke later that evening, issuing a citation requiring a court appearance. The video of the event surfaced after that citation had been issued.
On Thursday, August 2, Yellowstone rangers connected Reinke’s extensive history, and seeing the egregious nature of the wildlife violation, the Assistant U.S. Attorney requested his bond be revoked. The request was granted and on the night of August 2, a warrant was issued for Reinke’s arrest.
Reinke had told rangers that his plans were to travel to Glacier National Park, where rangers began looking for his vehicle. Simultaneous with that search, rangers responded to the Many Glacier Hotel because two guests were arguing and creating a disturbance in the hotel dining room. Rangers identified one of the individuals involved as Reinke.
Glacier rangers transported Reinke to Helena late Thursday, where they met Yellowstone rangers. Yellowstone rangers transported Reinke to Mammoth Hot Springs and booked him into the Yellowstone Jail. He was scheduled for a court appearance Friday.
Comments
this guy loves to knock them back and make an ass of himself. Hopefully his wife can keep him in the passenger seat. Best bet for her is to take this guy is a long walk In yellowstone and she can lose this fool. At least he can provide some food for the animals that survive the fire
Serves that complete moron right
Should affect his job security back home.
I live 25 miles south of the cowboy town of Pendleton, OR. I expect he will receive a hero's welcome home with free drinks at the Rainbow Bar. This stuff goes on at the Pendleton Round Up an entire week.
can anyone tel what kind of penalty he got
They should lock him up and throw away the key.
Amen!
sounds like boozie the clown has been on a week long bender. Who's the poor sucker who bailed this idiot out and continues to drive the moron around. He's so pickled he couldn't sit through a traffic stop and more than likely embarrassed the hell outta whoever he was with at the hotel. There's no way this is the first time he's done that. He must have all the money and took his friends on a sh** show across America because there's no way this guy got invited by his friends to go on a road trip