Police say man arrested in vehicle stolen from refuge

Protesters in OR who are occupying a national wildlife refuge pulled down cameras Friday that they believe were installed by the federal government.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had previously reported the vehicles had been stolen.

Oregon State Police officers took Kenneth Medenbach, of Crescent, Oregon, into custody just after noon at the Safeway in Burns.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Medenbach in a grocery store parking lot after finding him in a vehicle that had a federal government license plate on it, according to OregonLive.com.

At long last, after spending two weeks begging for Miracle Whip and tampons in an OR wildlife refuge, one of the armed militia LARPers finally got arrested by local law enforcement. The black-and-white vehicle operated as a faux speed trap – legally, in the view of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office – along U.S. Highway 97 on the north end of town. He’s the first protester to face arrest since militiamen started occupying the wildlife refuge in rural OR on January 2. Thousands of archeological artifacts and maps detailing where more can be found are stored at a national wildlife refuge now being held by a group of armed protestors. This little group thinks federal land should be exclusively for their use simply because they live next to it. Truth is, the Bundy family has been illegally grazing on federal land for years by not paying minimal grazing fees – fees that are far less than they had pay on private land.

“I don’t agree with anything they’re doing right now”, said Ben McCanna about the occupiers at the refuge, about 4 miles from where he lives.

As the standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge hits the two-week mark, people in this high desert area are growing increasingly tired and wary.

Local residents express a mix of feelings about the standoff. But McCanna, 54, also said the ranchers’ return to prison was wrong, and that he was irked that the U.S. Forest Service closed off access to one of his favorite camping spots in the nearby Malheur National Forest.

The BLM plan is meant to restore native habitat for protected Mojave Desert Tortoise, but local officials say it unfairly hurts ranchers and could harm the local economy.