The next time you dream of sneaking into your local National, State, Federal or Provincial Park for a little free camping, pause and remember what happened to Ronald Zabrok from Hamilton, Ontario.

When he bought his camping pass at the front gates of Algonquin Park last spring, he told the staff that he and his friends would be out camping for three days. When they failed to check-out on day three, the park staff launched a search and rescue operation to try to track the canoe party down. Staff called off the search when they were able to determine that they never intended to leave on the told date but actually several days later.

After an investigation, it was concluded that the group had intentionally evaded payment of camping fees and was fined an $1,800 fine.

Let that be a lesson kids, if you want to camp illegally and you get caught, a better excuse to use is that you got lost several days earlier and never knew you were in the park to start with. That will fly much better. “We were camping near the border Judge and must have crossed over sometime while we were lost. Honest! It could have happened to anybody!”

More info: myfmradio.ca
Flickr Photo Credit: heep14

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