News: Nat'l Forest Employees held hostage, Influencers Help Build RV Company, Remote Vans Looks to Future

Two U.S. Forest Service employees were zip-tied and held at gunpoint for nearly 15 hours by campers in a trailer inside California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest. The primary suspect, 49-year-old Joseph Charles Henrikson, used one of the employees’ phones to announce he had taken them hostage, had live ammunition, and wanted to speak with the FBI. The trailer was in an extremely rural and rugged area, so authorities used drones to locate it before negotiators and tactical teams moved in. Local sheriff’s deputies were joined by the FBI, California Highway Patrol, and the Bureau of Land Management. Negotiations began Thursday afternoon and continued late into the night. Around 1:50 a.m. Friday, the first Forest Service employee was released; the second came out roughly 15 minutes later. About half an hour after that, Henrikson and his 23-year-old son Phoenix surrendered. The elder Henrikson was carrying an AR-15 and claimed to possess grenades. Both men have been charged with kidnapping a federal employee, an offense that could carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. Officials have not identified the employees or said whether they suffered physical injuries, but the FBI said both are resting and will need time to process what happened.

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