California Man Arrested in Montana Said He Was Visiting Yogi Bear

Summer is almost here. Soon millions of Americans will be hitting the road for some summer fun. While others are hitting the road to visit a fictitious bear in a national park. That is what happened back in 2019 when a man claimed he had been visiting Yogi Bear.

According to The Smoking Gun

Manuel Paz Sanchez Jr., a 32-year-old California resident, received the stiff sentence during a hearing Thursday in U.S. District Court in Billings (where Sanchez had previously copped to a felony count of possession with intent to distribute meth).

Apparently, Sanchez was tailgating another driver on I-90 and gave a Montana State Trooper cause to pull him over. The trooper noticed the California driver's license and registration showing the car was a rental out of Sacramento. According to the report, the driver said he was traveling from visiting family in Idaho. Sanchez thought catching a flight from North Dakota would be cheaper than driving the rental home.

It was also a little suspicious that Sanchez didn't know the name of any of the towns he had been in, let alone the name of his destination in North Dakota. But, if that wasn't suspicious enough, Sanchez then said that he also was visiting Yogi Bear in Yellowstone National Park. This was when the trooper decided that maybe he was up to no good.....I mean, what more of a red flag do you need? Clearly, as we all know, Yogi lives in JELLYstone Park. I MEAN C'mon Sanchez!!

The trooper secured permission to search and found nearly 8 pounds of meth in a spare tire. Leading to his arrest.

It makes you wonder if Yogi will sign autographs if you do run into him while visiting. Maybe he will accept picnic baskets as payment?