Man Lost in Woods Prompts Massive Search by Falsely Reporting Bear Attack to 911

By Tim Binnall

A man who got lost in the West Virginia wilderness came up with a rather ill-advised way to getting rescued when he called emergency dispatchers and desperately claimed that he was being attacked by a bear. According to a local media report, the bizarre incident occurred this past Friday when Christian Leonhardt wandered into the woods and found himself unable to make his way back to civilization. What followed was a wild 911 call wherein the man lamented to the operator that he had been lost in the forest for days and, while screaming for help, claimed that he had run afoul of some bears that were on the verge of attacking him.

In light of what seemed to be a very serious situation, local authorities dispatched multiple search and rescue teams to Leonhardt's location in the hopes of finding him before he fell victim to the sleuth of hungry bears. After an exhaustive two hours of looking, they finally found the man and were bewildered to see that he was perfectly fine despite telling the 911 operator that he had suffered a head injury. Upon being questioned, cops say, Leonhardt told them that there was no bear attack and, in fact, he was simply "extremely intoxicated" and "needed to get out of the woods." Although the man was apologetic for fabricating the frightening predicament, police were not so forgiving as they arrested him and charged him with filing a false emergency report.