Man Who Wanted Ride Home Told Cops Bears Were Attacking Him

An Ohio resident’s excursion into the woods of West Virginia didn’t turn out as hoped. 47-year-old Christian Leonhardt stands accused of falsely claiming to be the victim of a bear attack in order to get a ride home from police. When they arrived and found no bears—and Leonhardt allegedly intoxicated—they placed him under arrest.

Belle, WV’s Fire Chief David Armstrong confirmed that Leonhardt contacted authorities on Friday evening. The panicked caller reported that he’d crashed his side-by-side vehicle and was now “being circled by bears and being attacked,” according to Armstrong. Leonhardt even told dispatchers he had been injured, and as they instructed him on how to fashion a compress out of his T-shirt, he revealed he’d been on foot for days since the crash, unable to get out of the forest.

Two separate fire departments took on the search, using sirens and bright lights to chase off any bears in the area. When they located Leonhardt “pretty deep” into Belle’s wood, there were no signs of any injury. Nor, for that matter, was there any evidence of bears. But in a twist, the side-by-side vehicle had actually crashed into a tree.

First responders reported that Leonard appeared to be intoxicated, and expressed to them that he “just wanted a ride out of the woods.” He refused medical treatment, due to his lack of bear injuries, and apologized for any inconvenience. Once deputies established Leonhardt was “not attacked” and “not injured,” they took him into custody on charges of falsely reporting an emergency.

“We put a lot of resources into this. To find out that’s not factual, that’s disheartening,” Armstrong told TooFab. “If he’d have called and said, ‘I’m lost, scared,’ we would have went anyway. To add that to the story, that was not the right thing to do.”

Leonhardt was booked into West Virginia Regional Jail, and released later the same day.