July 29, 2021

"Oh, you thought that too, didn't you? No? What an angel you are!"

I said, expressing skepticism about the story, reported in the NYT, about a grizzly bear in Alaska that "terrorized a man for days."

Now, I'm seeing the Daily Mail report, "Alaska gold miner is accused of making up story about bear stalking him for four days":

Now, however, locals are questioning his version of events after going to the cabin where he was rescued but finding no evidence of the days-long battle he described. Other local miners who were interviewed by The Nome Nugget went to the cabin where Jessee was rescued but found no bear tracks. They did however find the ATV and attached trailer that Jessee said the bear pushed into the water. They think he simply crashed the ATV but was too embarrassed to admit it, so made up the story after being rescued....

'There’s no hair, no tracks, no scat, nothing. He made a fool of us. We found out that his story didn’t match what we found.'... 

Thanks to reader Scott for sending me that link and for making one of the cleverest comments ever back on the original post, processing the elements of the NYT-reported story from the perspective of the bear:

I thought the guy was lost or something. Maybe he was dehydrated and couldn't make it back to his camp. I tried to help him for days, but he just wandered around wasting his energy screaming at me and waiving that useless little pistol around. Jackass even took a few shots at me. Good thing he couldn't shoot straight 'cause I'm a pretty big target. I finally got tired of his antics and drug him down to the river so he could at least get a drink and maybe someone would find him. He was fighting like crazy and ended up hurting himself. Eventually someone did find him so I just went back about my business thinking there goes a few days I'll never get back.

In his email with the link, Scott wrote, "The bear apparently made the whole thing up."

2 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

Lloyd writes:

"I love the stuff about the bear.

"I'm sure a few good books have been written about hoaxers and imposters. The story that was made into a Leo DeCaprio movie is good; there was a similar one about a guy who kept wanting to be a priest or monk, but he couldn't stick it. He'd fake credentials (in a very trusting age) to get teaching jobs, join the military, quit, and keep moving on. Eventually he was forced to adopt new identities to escape justice for previous escapades. He became medical officer on a Canadian naval vessel--with no relevant training. A crew member got wounded in a training exercise or something; time for surgery. He was very smart, and he quickly read any manuals that were in the sick bay. Patient rolled in. Someone applies anesthetic. They wait for the doctor to perform surgery. He assembles the instruments that were laid out for him; hmmm... that must be the rib spreader. Funny stuff in a ghoulish way.

"The Alaska guy is more: deflecting attention from an actual screw up and claiming great publicity for oneself. Can this actually work in the modern world? Tawana Brawley several years ago seems to have lied to her mother and step-father to cover the fact that she had run away, more or less to be with one or more boys. Her claims that white men had kidnapped and gang-raped her obviously caused a huge national issue, somewhat relevant to what is going on today. Similarly during the 2020 street protests, in good old Madison, Althea Bernstein got in a car with friends, promising her parents she wouldn't go to the protests. The kids of course went directly there, and Althea was somehow burned: handling a Molotov cocktail, or something similar. She got home and told her parents four white men had attacked her, thrown lighter fluid on her, and set it alight.

"At their best hoaxes show something inventive yet a bit unhinged in human beings. At their worst they can incite dangerous mobs."

Ann Althouse said...

Ted writes:

"A hoax? That's what the bear WANTS you to think."