A decade-long thriller of a useless bear cub that was found in New York’s Central Park has been solved after presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. admitted to dumping the carcass there in 2014 as a part of what he views as an elaborate prank.
Kennedy posted a video of his confession on his X account Sunday. Within the three-minute video, the impartial presidential candidate tells comic Roseanne Barr the weird particulars of his encounter with a black bear cub. Kennedy says he was driving upstate when a van in entrance of him struck a black bear cub within the street and killed it.
“So, I pulled over, picked up the bear, and put him behind my van,” Kennedy instructed Barr. “I used to be going to pores and skin the bear. It was in excellent situation, and I used to be going to place the meat in my fridge.”
As a substitute, Kennedy says he continued together with his plans for the day, which included a prolonged falconry outing close to Goshen in Upstate New York, adopted by a steak dinner at a widely known restaurant in Brooklyn.
“We went hawking, and I had the bear in my automotive,” Kennedy instructed Barr as she calmly sipped from a mug. “We had a extremely good day, and we went late. We have been catching a number of recreation. Individuals actually beloved it, so we stayed late.”
Kennedy defined how he was crunched for time and needed to go straight from searching close to Goshen to New York Metropolis for a dinner at Peter Luger Steak Home, with the useless cub nonetheless stashed in his car.
“On the finish of the dinner, it went late, and I spotted I couldn’t go dwelling. I needed to go to the airport,” Kennedy stated. “I didn’t wish to go away the bear in my automotive as a result of that might have been unhealthy.”
At this level, the Kennedy scion claimed he channeled his interior “redneck” and hatched a plan. Bike lanes had just lately been put in all through NYC, and bike accidents have been distinguished within the information.
“A few individuals had gotten killed, and it was each day that individuals had been badly injured. Every single day, it was within the press,” Kennedy stated. “I wasn’t consuming, in fact, however individuals have been consuming with me who thought this was a good suggestion.”
Kennedy then used an previous bicycle that was additionally, one way or the other, in his automotive to stage an accident in Central Park.
“We’ll make it appear to be he obtained hit by the bike,” Kennedy stated, laughing. “It will likely be humorous for individuals.”
Based on a 2014 New York Occasions article, 79-year-old Florence Slatkin discovered the useless bear whereas strolling her canine in Central Park. Slatkin, who didn’t seem amused by the useless bear cub, referred to as 911.
“The mouth was open, and it seemed bloody,” Slatkin instructed reporters in October 2014. “At first, I assumed it was a raccoon.”
The invention set off an investigation by the NYPD.
“The following day, it was on each tv station,” Kennedy stated. “It was on the entrance web page of each paper. I turned on the TV, and there was a mile of yellow tape and 20 cop vehicles. There have been helicopters flying over it … There have been individuals in Tyvek fits lifting up the bike. They have been saying they have been going to take this as much as Albany to get it fingerprinted. I used to be fearful as a result of my prints have been throughout that bike.”
Kennedy didn’t instantly fess as much as the macabre sensible joke. It took him 10 years to ultimately come clear in a recorded dialog with Barr. He additionally posted the video simply sooner or later earlier than an article about his presidential marketing campaign appeared in The New Yorker; it additionally contained the story.
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Though Kennedy assured Barr that “you may get a bear tag for roadkill” in New York (a typical follow in lots of states), the New York Division of Environmental Conservation doesn’t specify necessities for possessing a black bear carcass that was hit by a automotive. As a substitute, the DEC instructed information shops that his actions would have seemingly incurred not less than a $250 superb on the time for “the unlawful possession of a bear with no tag or allow and unlawful disposal of a bear.” The statue of limitations has since expired, which suggests Kennedy gained’t be cited. The DEC additionally outlines 4 methods to legally dispose of untamed animal carcasses on the whole, none of which contain stashing them within the bushes of Central Park.