A California man is facing a criminal charge for allegedly BASE jumping off Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park during the federal government shutdown last year.
Jack Propeck, of Mission Viejo, is charged with one count of delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter or other airborne means, according to a complaint filed Dec. 12 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.
Propeck is representing himself, court documents state. He did not respond to a message seeking comment Thursday.
The investigation began in October, when someone reported to the National Park Service tip line an Instagram video of a man making the jump on Oct. 8, according to a criminal complaint. The video, posted to an account bearing Propeck’s name, pans to the man’s face as he deploys a parachute, it states.
A license plate reader detected Propeck’s car entering the national park on Oct. 7 and leaving Oct. 8, and photos showed Propeck behind the wheel, wearing the same purple mirrored sunglasses the man was seen wearing in the Instagram video, according to the complaint.
When a park ranger contacted Propeck, he denied he was the man in the video, saying he’d used artificial intelligence to superimpose his face onto the footage, the complaint states.
Propeck is next due in court April 7 for arraignment.
BASE jumping is an extreme sport in which people make parachute-assisted leaps from fixed objects ranging from cliffs to rooftops to bridges. BASE is an acronym for buildings, antennas, spans and earth.
The activity is illegal in national parks, but multiple reports of people engaging in the thrill-seeking activity emerged during the government shutdown that stretched from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12.
At least one other person was charged with allegedly BASE jumping in Yosemite during that time, near El Capitan on Oct. 29, after visitors reported the activity to rangers, park officials said.
The Park Service takes allegations of illegal activity seriously and will investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, Scott Carr, spokesperson for Yosemite National Park, said in a statement.
“Engaging in such illegal activities endangers both visitors and National Park Service first responders,” Carr said. “Yosemite’s grandeur is a treasure that everyone should experience responsibly.”
