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A 35-year-old Moab man charged with stealing a fossilized dinosaur footprint will serve a year of probation — including six months of home confinement — and pay about $15,000 in restitution, a federal judge decided Monday.
Prosecutors say Jared Ehlers pried a piece of sandstone with an ancient three-toed dinosaur track from the Hell's Revenge jeep trail near Moab on Feb. 17. Authorities believe he got nervous after being questioned in the case and dumped the print into the Colorado River in early March.
Divers searched the river but didn't recover the 150-pound fossil.
Ehlers pleaded guilty in July to one count of removing a paleontological resource. The restitution in the case covers search costs.
He told a federal judge Monday he was sorry for what he called a horrible decision.
The Associated Press