A California man facing a federal charge for an alleged illegal BASE jump in Yosemite National Park is claiming a very unique and very modern defense, the video evidence against him is fake and generated from AI.
The alleged BASE Jump off Glacier Point in Yosemite National Park happened during the 2025 federal government shutdown when park staff was at a bare minimum. Jack Propeck was arrested after authorities used an Instagram video and vehicle-tracking data to identify him.
The investigation began back in October, when someone called the National Park Service Tip Line to report an Instagram video of a man leaping from the popular overlook before deploying a parachute on October 8th, 2025. The video (as seen below) came from an account with Propeck’s name and the camera appears to pan to the his face as he deployed the parachute.
When contacted by a Yosemite Park Ranger about the incriminating video, Propeck denied he was the man in the video and told them he had used artificial intelligence to superimpose his face onto the footage. Slick defense but he also has another bad fact to contend with, a license plate reader detected Propeck’s car entering Yosemite on October 7th and leaving October 8th. There are also photos showing Propeck behind the wheel, wearing the same purple mirrored sunglasses the man was seen wearing in the Instagram video.
Propeck is charged with one count of delivering or retrieving a person or object by parachute, helicopter or other airborne means according to a U.S. District Court complaint. Propeck is representing himself is next due in court April 7 for arraignment.
