Fall '97 I was contracted to the BLM in western Oregon and camped near the Siuslaw River. A couple rolled in nearby and asked "permission" to camp there. Well, having no authority to grant or deny such permission, I said "why not", and figured they were OK, since I sure appreciated the gesture.
Couple weeks go by. Trash piles up near their camp, and I begin to wonder if that was a good idea. Eventually they abandon the camp, trash and all, and move up the road a piece.
A couple of weeks later, I'm awakened by helicopter noise. I walk over to the other side of the gravel pile I'm camped by to see a SWAT team in full riot gear, two ambulances, and a news crew! I ask somebody who appears to be in charge if I should be somewhere else. He suggests that maybe I should. I hit the trail for my day's work.
When I get back, hours later, I see the whole procession rolling out. In the evening, a burly female detective stops by my trailer to ask me what I knew about the folks camped nearby. Well, I didn't know much, so she asks if I'd pick 'em out of a line-up. I said no, they'd done me no harm and I didn't know what they were accused of.
Couple weeks later I find out that they had been stealing cars or something and had been cornered at the end of a dead-end road near my camp that morning. Shots were fired, hence the SWAT team.
Punch-line: my BLM contract boss had seen the whole thing on the news, and had recognized the area. Somehow, he thought it was my partner and myself, and was surprised to see us show up in the office the next day!
