2 Women Jailed for Damaging Yellowstone Feature,They walked into bacterial mats near thermal feature

[Demovictory9]

Leaving the boardwalk in thermal areas of Yellowstone National Park has left some people seriously injured—or dissolved. It landed two Philadelphia women in jail. Tara Davoli, 31, and Sarah Piotrowski, 30, have been sentenced to two days in jail and ordered to pay around $450 each in fines and restitution for leaving the path and walking into an environmentally sensitive area, CBS Philadelphia reports. A judge in Wyoming also banned them from the park for two years. Authorities say they damaged orange bacterial mats at Opal Pool in the Midway Geyser Basin in the June 11 incident.




The colorful mats are among Yellowstone's main attractions. Authorities say witnesses tried to stop the women. "Several witnesses took pictures of Davoli and Piotrowski walking in the thermal feature, which were provided to the park rangers. The rangers were able to use that information to assist in positively identifying the two," a spokesman for US Attorney Mark Klaassen tells the Philadelphia Inquirer. "When confronted by witnesses the women made sarcastic remarks and went on their way."

https://www.newser.com/story/292465/2-women-jailed-for-damaging-yellowstone-feature.html

[Atticus]

1. Gee, I wonder which political party these women belong to?

"When confronted by witnesses the women made sarcastic remarks and went on their way."

[lunasun]

2. Two more entitled assholes at least they were checked and fined . Oops rules do apply to you too

[MaryMagdaline]

3. This country is full of selfish entitled jerks

[Shrike47]

4. They only got 2 days in jail, too little IMO.

[albacore]

5. THAT is how people get boiled in Y-stone! They got lucky. nt

[crickets]

7. Absolutely! Sadly, there are people who die every year

because they don't take the signs seriously and don't realize that the walkways are for their protection, not just their convenience. Nearby 'ground' can sometimes be nothing but a thin crust over boiling hot water or mud. Thermal features can run off into what looks like a refreshing cool stream, but if you dive in - you're dead.

They are very lucky to get off with a slap on the wrist and no major injuries or worse.

[MissB]

6. Damn lucky they didn't die.

You just don’t leave the boardwalk.

We were there a couple of years ago and one of the thermal walls had a combination of boardwalk and dirt/gravel pathway. I always felt better on the boardwalk vs dirt/gravel.

It also doesn’t feel great to read some of the plaques at the stops along the boardwalk where there’s a thermal vent in view that talks about how some folks died there because it blew suddenly in a spectacular way.

[jalan48]

8. Well aren't they special.

[Xolodno]

9. They are walking in the caldera of an active volcano.

Those thermal features can kill you. These entitled idiots probably think it was unfair they got tossed into the slammer, fined and banned.

[Retrograde]

10. Just because the bison do it

doesn't mean you can - or should.

What surprised me at Yellowstone were all the hoofprints in and around the pools: a ranger told me that they mostly hang around them in winter, which gives an idea of how long the prints last (I was there in July). Besides being disrespectful to the park and other visitors, it's dumb and potentially lethal.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

11. It's a selfish mindset ...

They're like the people who want to take chunks of Hawaii home or sign their names on ancient cave drawings.