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'Bigfoot Hunt' Goes Bad: 1 Man Shot, 3 Arrested

By Aditi Mukherji, JD on November 04, 2013 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

A Bigfoot hunting expedition went terribly awry when one Oklahoma man -- a human, not a Sasquatch -- got spooked by a "barking noise" and accidentally shot his friend in the back. Better than getting stabbed in the back by a friend, right? (Har har.)

Omar Pineda -- the 21-year-old gun wieldin', Sasquatch huntin', back shooter -- was arrested for reckless conduct with a firearm and obstruction. Pineda's father-in-law and wife were cuffed for interfering with the investigation.

Bigfoot: 1; Humans: 0.

Reckless Conduct With a Firearm

In Oklahoma, a person can potentially be charged with reckless conduct with a firearm when he or she:

  1. Engages in conduct with a loaded shotgun/rifle/pistol;
  2. Which creates a situation of unreasonable risk and probability of death or great bodily harm to another; and
  3. Demonstrates a conscious disregard for the safety of another person.

During their hunting quest for Bigfoot, Pineda and his friend were armed and reportedly trespassing on private property in the dead of night, reports Tulsa's KFOR-TV. These conditions arguably created an unreasonably spooky risky situation; Pineda is accused of consciously disregarding the safety of another person.

Interestingly enough, Rogers County's sheriff would beg to differ. "If [they] had just been factual, upfront and truthful with us and explained that this was truly an accident, as strange as it might sound, we would have went ahead and investigated and probably nobody would have [gone] to jail," he told Tulsa's KOTV.

If you didn't learn this lesson from Pinocchio, learn it from this #SasquatchHuntingFail: Lying is bad.

Wife, Father-in-Law Charged With Obstruction

Obstruction of justice generally refers to the crime of interfering with the work of government officials (usually police, prosecutors, or investigators).

Pineda's father-in-law Perry Don James was charged with destruction of evidence after he threw the gun into a pond, which police dive teams then had to recover, reports KOTV.

James apparently didn't want police to find the gun on his property because he's a convicted felon -- and lo and behold, he was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Lacey Jane Pineda, the suspect's wife, was booked for obstruction when she allegedly lied to officers and said someone else had shot her husband's friend.

I think we all know who that "someone else" was. Well played, Bigfoot. Well played.

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