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Alaskan Justice

A fun article on how things used to be done in Alaska. From the Alaska Dispatch:

Pilots to cut fingers off thieves stealing from planes
From the March 17, 1951 edition of The Mukluk Telegraph. "The Arctic's Greatest Newspaper."

Pilots to cut fingers off thieves stealing from planes

The local bush pilots recently agreed to work together and chop the fingers off anyone caught stealing emergency equipment from any of their airplanes. One pilot has been putting poison in some of his emergency food in an effort to kill off the thieves but to date has met with no success.

Marshal Neily says he is incompetent to deal with so difficult a situation, but told the pilots after they had made numerous protests to him that if they would bring in the thieves he would talk to them. The pilots, realizing emergency equipment may mean life or death to themselves and their passengers, have decided on more direct and effective action.

Makes a lot of sense -- stealing food or disabling an aircraft (even unintentionally) would be the difference between life and death. Posted by DaveH at October 4, 2009 12:15 PM