Watch Your Pack!

A homeless man was arrested Monday for stealing a hiker’s backpack on the Long Trail.

According to a press release from the Killington Police Department, police responded to a report of a theft of a hiking pack from the Cooper Lodge in Killington on Aug. 7.

Killington Police Chief Whit Montgomery said a female hiker, “set her pack down to take a better look at the view,” he said. “When she turned around she saw him take off with her pack.”

Witnesses hiking on the Long Trail were able to provide police with a description and direction of travel of the suspect, who was intercepted as he exited the woods at Bucklin Brook trailhead on Wheelerville Rd. in Mendon, a distance of roughly four miles away from the shelter. He and a companion waiting at the trailhead in a car were unable to identify the contents of the pack as their own.

Bryan Hamilton, age 23, was taken into custody and lodged at the Marble Valley Correctional Center for lack of bail. He was scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 8 to answer to the charge of grand larceny, a felony charge.

The pack and its contents were returned to its owner.

Montgomery said the incident was rare: “I can’t remember someone running off with a pack,” he said.