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Adirondack Bushman Charged With Mischief

May 3rd, 2007 · 5 Comments · News

Time to revisit my all-time most popular post.

The Glens Falls Post-Star is reporting that Alan G. Como has plead guilty to felony criminal mischief.

Modern Adirondack Hobo - Alan G ComoThe charge had nothing to do with the litany of home break-ins police believe Alan G. Como committed in the Brant Lake/Beaver Pond area in 2005 and 2006, however.

Instead, the only felony charge prosecutors could pin on him was a felony criminal mischief count that was brought for his cutting down trees on private property to make a hut…

Even though the guy was surrounded by stolen property, and even wearing a pair of pants with the name of one of the burglary victims, local DA Kate Hogan and her office “concluded the criminal mischief count was the only felony that could be successfully prosecuted.” Remember, this guy was caught by sheer luck.

According to Sheriff Larry Cleveland,

“We know he did them but we didn’t have enough evidence to prove it beyond a reasonable doubt,”

“He didn’t leave any evidence behind (at the homes he burglarized). He was very good at it.”

Look, I don’t support what this guy has done, but this story is sounding more like First Blood than a case-study in law-enforcement and prosecution. They are hitting him with a felony count based on the estimated value of a tree. Judge John Hall notes:

“One large tree is worth more than $250,”

Como has disputed the value of the trees and the damage he has caused.

“Ninety percent of the trees I cut down were dead wood,”

When he is sentenced June 13th, he faces up to 4 years in state prison.

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5 Comments so far ↓

  • Ezight

    Oh yeah.
    Give him 4 years in prison for something so petty.
    It’s not like he molested some kid, he just wanted to live away from people and be alone.

    3 hots ,a cot and free healthcare while he’s in the pen.
    Let him go !!!!
    35,000 a year to take care of a hermit while in the pen.

    Sheesh might as well put him on social security that would be $8,000 a year and put him on probation—CHEAPER!!!!!!

  • D.B.

    Four years in prison for a tree that was two miles into the woods. And they will probably make that stick and give it to him and because he is stubborn, he will probably serve all four years.

    And New York State will release dozens of child molesters during those four years.

    It is a police state. Your kids don’t matter but like the Japanese saying goes, “The nail that sticks up will be pounded down.”

    This man is one such nail.

    D.B.

  • Ezight

    The system does not want people that are capable of living outside the system to exist that way.
    If everyone knew how to live outside the system we would all be put into concentration camps.
    I myself am like this.
    Not quite outside the system but enough that if need be i can make my own power ,clean my own water,kill my own food,build my own shelter.
    I even own some rather unique (optical devices) that allow sight in complete darkness.

  • Robert

    The guy plead guilty? WTF, he probably thought hey why not? I get 3 hots and a cot, get to talk to people and as an old guy not be messed with to much other than be addressed as pops.

    Hell, the guy for be in the woods for 20 years would have a lot of respect from other inmates plus health care.

    4 years? I did 16 years in the military. I’d do 4 years in state prison if I could get 12 of my 16 years back from the Army!

  • Richard

    Basically, he’s just a petty crook. Put him away.
    Quit trying to make this scum into a hero just because he can live in the woods. Any moron – obviously – can do it.

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