With a shock, I read on
www.cnn.com the news that “D.B. Cooper’s” parachute from the hijacking decades ago had been found. I immediately went on GoogleEarth and compared the site to where Douglas Squirrel had been arrested for breaking and entering into a bird feeder on the very day that the hijacker had bailed out. Yep, the location of the chute was just two miles away from that spot; the wind had blown it that far before it settled into the forest floor.
I know Gran and Mr. Squirrel are following this story with intense interest. While Gran has apparently accepted that Mr. Squirrel has served his debt to society, I doubt that the federal authorities will agree.
It was a matter of luck that he wasn’t fingered right away. Luck, and jurisdictional conflicts. He was arrested by local law enforcement, and they never thought to tie him to the hijacking. Today, with an interconnected database, that confusion wouldn’t have happened.
The question now is, is somebody going to go through the court records of the town where the parachute was discovered and say, Hey, there was a squirrel arrested in a bird feeder on the same day the hijacker vanished. He fit the description. Better check him out...
