Apparently if you falsely claim to be stranded at sea you will be sentenced to prison. That’s the verdict for a California man who repeatedly made this claim and was sentenced Monday in San Jose to 30 months in federal prison as a result.
Prosecutors say 53-year-old Kurtis Thorsted broadcast more than four dozen false distress signals over six months in 2008, costing the Coast Guard more than $102,000 for attempted searches.
In 2004 he was sentenced to two years in prison for the same crime. A public defender said in a sentencing memo that Thorsted is disabled from a traumatic brain injury and has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Thorsted pleaded guilty to broadcasting the latest “mayday” calls from his Salinas home and telling would-be rescuers he was stranded in an offshore kayak.
[Via: Associated Press]
[Photo Via: mikebaird]
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