Man fined for burning car on BLM land

[accadacca]

Andrew Adams reporting
March 23rd, 2011 @ 6:16pm
By ksl.com

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Salt Lake City man's bid to save his house from foreclosure led him to burn a car on public lands, which in turn led to a hefty fine.

John Maxim has owned his Salt Lake City house for seven years, but when he fell behind in his mortgage payments in the summer of 2010 the bank said they were going to foreclose unless he came up with $15,000.

Maxim devised an Internet scheme and explained in a YouTube video that he would torch his car and show the video online if people would help him raise the $15,000.

"I didn't really have any choices and I'll be honest, I didn't think it was going to work," Maxim said. "But I didn't just give up."



The plan worked. Maxim received about $20,000 in donations.

"I tried something that was a little crazy and unorthodox, but it did work," he said.

He kept his end of the deal. He burned his car at Lone Rock in Skull Valley, Tooele County. That's on BLM land.

"It is illegal to dump on public lands," said BLM field manager Jill Silvey. "It absolutely creates a public nuisance."

When the BLM heard about Maxim's plan, they followed him and eventually charged him.

Maxim pled guilty to two misdemeanor counts -- creating a hazard and a nuisance, and causing a fire other than a campfire. He was fined $1,000 and ordered to pay about $2,400 in restitution to the BLM.

"It's not OK to use public lands for these types of purposes," said Erin Darboven with the BLM.

Maxim contended there was nothing but barren soil at the location of the fire. Darboven says if others see damaged land, they might damage it, too.

"I am sympathetic to this gentleman's position. I just don't want him to dump on public lands."

This is the second incident in which Maxim was found guilty of creating a hazard on public lands. In June 2009, he advertised a large party at the same location. Party-goers burned household furniture including couches, mattresses and electronics in a large bonfire.



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Story written with contributions from Alex Cabrero and Andrew Adams.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=14844740

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[ExpUt]

I applaud the BLM in perusing cases like this. While motorized, mountainbike, Wilderness and anit-OHV factions are fighting about semantics and the future of segments of routes throughout Utah, far bigger atrocities are happening and most often at the hands of those that have no interest one way or another in the future of our public lands. Each year 4x4 clubs from all over the state host clean up projects on National Public Lands Day in conjunction with the BLM and FS, eac year we are out cleaning up the same high volume trash spots. Shooting trash (#1 threat to public lands imo), dozens of dumped cars, burned out camp trailers, appliances, furniture, construction debris, etc. Then imagine how this piggy people camp, they leave everything that won't burn in the bushes and the rest is a molten glob of plastic and melted glass in their fire pit which is often just feet off the trail. These 'weekend warriors' pose a far greater threat to Utah's back country than OHV's, mountain bikes, horses, etc.

Case and point. Murdock Basin in the lower Uintas. A gentleman from the Salt Lake Valley towed his dilapidated camp trailer up the trail several miles (mind you several hours from Salt Lake) and intent-fully pushed the camper body off of the trailer frame and took the trailer home with him to convert into a flat bed utility trailer. They had stipped all the registration stickers, plats and vin numbers off of the trailer. Thought they had cleaned out all the drawers and cupboards in the camper, his wife left a couple of old magazines on a drawer... they had a subscritpion name and address on them. The Forest Service LEO did some background checking and found that that household had in fact owned a similar camp trailer, knowing that he called and spoke with the registered owner. He initially denied owning it any longer however the LEO informed him he was just a few minutes away from his house and was going to be really pissed if there was a bare trailer frame at the guys house. He accepted his ticket and ended up paying the canyon entry fee for our entire group as well as the cost of a dumpster to haul the mess out. I could go on with similar stories...

[bbennett]

I applaud the BLM in perusing cases like this. While motorized, mountainbike, Wilderness and anit-OHV factions are fighting about semantics and the future of segments of routes throughout Utah, far bigger atrocities are happening and most often at the hands of those that have no interest one way or another in the future of our public lands. Each year 4x4 clubs from all over the state host clean up projects on National Public Lands Day in conjunction with the BLM and FS, eac year we are out cleaning up the same high volume trash spots. Shooting trash (#1 threat to public lands imo), dozens of dumped cars, burned out camp trailers, appliances, furniture, construction debris, etc. Then imagine how this piggy people camp, they leave everything that won't burn in the bushes and the rest is a molten glob of plastic and melted glass in their fire pit which is often just feet off the trail. These 'weekend warriors' pose a far greater threat to Utah's back country than OHV's, mountain bikes, horses, etc.

Case and point. Murdock Basin in the lower Uintas. A gentleman from the Salt Lake Valley towed his dilapidated camp trailer up the trail several miles (mind you several hours from Salt Lake) and intent-fully pushed the camper body off of the trailer frame and took the trailer home with him to convert into a flat bed utility trailer. They had stipped all the registration stickers, plats and vin numbers off of the trailer. Thought they had cleaned out all the drawers and cupboards in the camper, his wife left a couple of old magazines on a drawer... they had a subscritpion name and address on them. The Forest Service LEO did some background checking and found that that household had in fact owned a similar camp trailer, knowing that he called and spoke with the registered owner. He initially denied owning it any longer however the LEO informed him he was just a few minutes away from his house and was going to be really pissed if there was a bare trailer frame at the guys house. He accepted his ticket and ended up paying the canyon entry fee for our entire group as well as the cost of a dumpster to haul the mess out. I could go on with similar stories...

Great post.

[JP]

I applaud the BLM in perusing cases like this.
Case and point. Murdock Basin in the lower Uintas. A gentleman from the Salt Lake Valley towed his dilapidated camp trailer up the trail several miles (mind you several hours from Salt Lake) and intent-fully pushed the camper body off of the trailer frame and took the trailer home with him to convert into a flat bed utility trailer. They had stipped all the registration stickers, plats and vin numbers off of the trailer. Thought they had cleaned out all the drawers and cupboards in the camper, his wife left a couple of old magazines on a drawer... they had a subscritpion name and address on them. The Forest Service LEO did some background checking and found that that household had in fact owned a similar camp trailer, knowing that he called and spoke with the registered owner. He initially denied owning it any longer however the LEO informed him he was just a few minutes away from his house and was going to be really pissed if there was a bare trailer frame at the guys house. He accepted his ticket and ended up paying the canyon entry fee for our entire group as well as the cost of a dumpster to haul the mess out. I could go on with similar stories...

Nice

[Sombeech]

A little Tannerite will take care of that

[JP]

[ExpUt]

A little Tannerite will take care of that

Don't get me started on that situation again.

I have to admit that was the first thread I though of when I read this one... lol. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure its fun but having spent countless hours picking up similar situations in the wild... I would sooner burn out a car in the South Town Mall's parking lot than on public lands

[JP]

Don't get me started on that situation again.

[Reedus]

Did someone say tannerite?
*slowly peeks head in and then exits*

[CarpeyBiggs]

sounds like we need to forward a specific thread onto the BLM...

[JP]

[Sombeech]

sounds like we need to forward a specific thread onto the BLM...

[moabfool]

Case and point. Murdock Basin in the lower Uintas. A gentleman from the Salt Lake Valley towed his dilapidated camp trailer up the trail several miles (mind you several hours from Salt Lake) and intent-fully pushed the camper body off of the trailer frame and took the trailer home with him to convert into a flat bed utility trailer. They had stipped all the registration stickers, plats and vin numbers off of the trailer. Thought they had cleaned out all the drawers and cupboards in the camper, his wife left a couple of old magazines on a drawer... they had a subscritpion name and address on them. The Forest Service LEO did some background checking and found that that household had in fact owned a similar camp trailer, knowing that he called and spoke with the registered owner. He initially denied owning it any longer however the LEO informed him he was just a few minutes away from his house and was going to be really pissed if there was a bare trailer frame at the guys house. He accepted his ticket and ended up paying the canyon entry fee for our entire group as well as the cost of a dumpster to haul the mess out. I could go on with similar stories...

Seriously? He could have done even less work, taken the trailer to the dump, paid for the wase fee by weight, and had the satisfaction of watching the giant front-end loader smash the trailer to bits. He spent more in gas hauling that thing up to the forest than the cost of taking it to the dump. Why somebody would drive miles out in the country to dump trash instead of forking over a few dollars for the landfill is beyond me. I seriously despise trashy people. They should be branded or tattooed on their forehead with a "scarlet letter" T (for "trashy"). That way when they show up at any beautiful place they can be slapped and turned away. "I'm sorry (not really, but that's what polite peopel say), you're a 'Trashy Person.' You will need to go straight home and never go anywhere again. Going forward please don't eat, drink, urinate, deficate, or procreate ever again. Would you like to donate your soon to be deceased body to science so students at a medical school can see just how messed up a person's body can be?" [/rant]