Social media influencer Katie Sigmond was only fined $285 for a golfing stunt that took place at The Grand Canyon back in October, according to AZ Central.
The 20-year-old, who has over 3 million followers on Instagram, uploaded a video of herself hitting a golf ball, and accidentally throwing her club off Mather Point on the Grand Canyon’s South Rim.
The video was taken down shortly uploading, but not before officials at Grand Canyon National Park were alerted to its existence.
A screen recording of the original video has been uploaded to Reddit, and is embedded below:
Grand Canyon National Park officials were clearly not please with Sigmond’s antics.
It is illegal to throw anything into the Grand Canyon. Thrown rocks, trees, and other debris could seriously injure hikers, climbers, and others recreating in the canyon below.
The Park took to Instagram to update their followers on the incident and to deter others from such negligent behavior. An excerpt from the post’s caption is included below:
“Do we really need to say, ‘don’t hit golf balls into the Grand Canyon?’
“Throwing objects over the rim of the canyon is not only illegal but can also endanger hikers and wildlife who may be below.”
AZ Central reports that Sigmond was only cited for disorderly conduct and tossing or throwing items into the Grand Canyon. These charges could carry a maximum fine of $5,000 and six months in prison.
Rather than appear in court, Sigmond signed a collateral forfeiture agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, and was ordered to only pay $285 for her reckless stunt.
^Katie Sigmond
Doesn’t that seem like she got off a little bit easy?
Hitting a golf ball into the Grand Canyon isn’t really that big of a crime when compared to more egregious criminal acts, but one would think that the government would want to make an example of Sigmond.
Social media influencers are a plague on places like National Parks. Sigmond certainly isn’t the first, and won’t be the last, to do something dangerous and utterly stupid at our Nation’s fantastic National Parks for likes online.
It would have been nice to see the government come down hard with a steeper fine. Jail time would have been overkill, but having the feds slap her with a $5,000 fine to deter other copycats seems reasonable.
^Sigmond is apparently a regular at TopGolf.
A $285 fine was probably worth it.
I had never heard of her before this incident, had you? Now she’s got thousands of people talking about her, including myself.
All she had to do was shell out just shy of $300 and immediately return to her life of posting pictures of herself scantily-dressed in hot tubs and at golf courses.
All publicity is good publicity as they say, I guess.