Alaska Man Monday: Meeting Moose – RedState

Check this out; sometimes, in Alaska, you have to be careful just going to the post office:

It was a cow and her one-year-old calf. I managed to get around them and through the side door of the post office, and out front you could see them at a distance of about six to ten feet from a safe position inside the lobby. It was neat – and this cow moose, well, I’m 6’1″, and his shoulder hump was about level with the top of my head. His calf was more or less the size of a cow elk. They’re big creatures – and we’ll have more on that in this week’s video. In the meantime:

Now in Wasilla, a dim-witted crook appears to be setting a new standard for dim-wittedness: stealing items by renting them to a rental company, then trying to keep them.

It’s stupid.

On 11/11/25 at approximately 6:30 p.m., the Alaska State Troopers’ Criminal Enforcement Unit (CSU) contacted Tyler Smith, 38, at his Big Lake residence in response to several open theft cases. CSU had received a report that Tyler had rented equipment from a rental company in Willow and did not return it for over a month. He did this with insufficient funds so they were unable to bill him for an extended period of time.

Further investigation revealed that Tyler had rented several other items from rental companies in Big Lake and Anchorage, which he then pawned at a pawn shop in Wasilla. Each of these items was rented in September and was pawned almost immediately after the rental. CSU recovered the items and contacted Tyler to question him about the thefts and attempt to recover the equipment rented from Willow. It was revealed that the equipment was now in Soldotna, making immediate recovery impossible. Tyler was arrested on six counts of second-degree theft and two counts of third-degree theft. He was remanded into custody at Mat-Su’s pretrial and held without bail.

I’m not sure how Mr. Smith thought he could get away with this. When you rent something, they have all your contact information. I’m pretty sure they ask for ID as well. This takes stupid scamming to a whole new level of stupid scamming.

Alaska Man Score: 1.5 out of 5 moose nuggets. Mr. Tyler gets a point and a half for making us laugh.

Learn more: Alaska Man Monday – Inappropriate protests, a stupid scammer and bad arguments

Next, we have an Anchorage resident who saw something unusual: a bull moose dropping both antlers at the same time.

Christie Ericson had just returned home when she spotted a moose across the street.

“I had just come home from a meeting and I was pulling into the driveway and I saw the moose,” Ericson said. She added that while she frequently sees moose in her neighborhood, she rarely sees a bull with a full rack.

She went to the end of her driveway to take photos and short video clips when the unexpected happened.

“I took maybe four or five little videos, none of which were very good. I was trying to get a good photo. And then all of a sudden, they (the antlers) fell off,” Ericson said.

She and the moose were surprised.

The shame is that someone else took care of the woods before Christie.

After the moose left, Ericson checked her footage to confirm she had captured the split-second moment. When she came back outside to look for the lost antlers, they were already gone.

It happens. People appreciate lost antlers; they will never stay on the ground for too long. But despite that, Christie made a great video, and that’s no small thing.

Alaska Man Score: 5 antlers lost.

Learn more: Alaska Man Monday – a baby moose, a stupid crook and a big name

Now, speaking of moose:

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