Ski Bums Officially Endangered
Ski Bums Officially Endangered
[ January 11, 2010 - 4:11pm ]
A lifelong ski bum is arrested for sleeping in the parking lot at Arapahoe Basin
A 63-year-old ski bum with 34 years' experience sleeping in his VW Beetle at resort bases around the West might not make it onto the slopes this winter. According to the Denver Post, Charlie Toups, "Colorado's ultimate ski bum and a relic of a fading era," has been locked in a Georgetown jail for nearly two months, after unpaid tickets for camping on public lands led to his arrest--while skiing. Toups, who received the summonses while parked in the Colorado Department of Transportation lot at Arapahoe Basin, was also charged with marijuana possession and assaulting a Forest Service officer while resisting arrest. He could face two years in prison and a quarter-million-dollar fine. Friends say the assault charge is bunk and that he's harmless, "a ski bum who never grew up." But to the federal prosecutor on the case, "ski bum" is more sinister. Calling Toups "a danger to this community" and "openly hostile to the government, the prosecutor said, "All he wants to do is apparently ski and not work and live this alternative lifestyle." We fail to see the problem here.
Photo by Papalars on Flickr
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Give him a job, SKI!
FREE CHARLIE TOUPS!!!!
You would think the prosecuter would have her hands full going after the guy who dragged Buddy the dog to death last month in Colorado National Monumnet. Ms. Heldmyer - leave ski bums alone!