Utah Man Finds Cougar in His Garage
Posted on: Thursday, 6 May 2004, 06:00 CDT
SANDY, Utah - It's not uncommon to find a cougar in a garage - a parked Mercury Cougar, that is. But a man was surprised to find the actual animal taking up temporary residence in his garage Wednesday.
John Jelte was trying to beat the garbage truck to the curb when he walked into his garage and heard a noise.
He investigation brought him face-to-face with the mountain lion, something he said he would have never figured to be the source of the noise.
"A meteor strike would have been further up my list. I was so surprised to see that lion there," he said.
Jelte immediately closed the garage door and summoned help.
"I'm not sure they believed there was a big cat in there," said the part-time trucker and part-time legal assistant. "A big dog maybe, but not a mountain lion."
Jelte's suburban Salt Lake City neighborhood is about eight blocks from Dimple Dell State Park and even farther from the mouth of Bells Canyon, the most logical place of origin for the cougar.
Division of Wildlife officers shot the cougar with a tranquilizer dart, and planned to release it back into the wild.
Jelte said he was glad he found the big cat before his twin 10-year-old daughters did.
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