(Newser)
–
A mysterious mountain man wanted by the law is wandering the desolate backwoods of southern Utah, reports AP. He breaks into cabins and steals food, alcohol, and guns and then disappears back into the wilderness. Authorities have been searching for him for five years to no avail, and they worry he's becoming unhinged. No violent encounters have been reported, but lately he has been ransacking vacant cabins, shooting them up, and defiling religious icons. He left a note in one saying, "Get off my mountain."
"You wouldn't want to come across that guy," says one local police detective. "He's scaring the daylights out of cabin owners," adds a woman with a trailer in the area. "Now everyone's packing guns." In December, authorities snapped a picture of a suspect with a motion-sensor camera, revealing a brown-haired man in camouflage toting a rifle. One theory holds he may be a castoff of the polygamous sect formerly run by Warren Jeffs.
