Game Wardens Confiscate Stuffed Polar Bear At Jones Airport

Game wardens confiscated a taxidermied polar bear at Jones Airport Thursday night.

The bear was legally harvested in Hope, Alaska in 1969 by an Oklahoma man and kept on display in a hangar at the airport.

According to game wardens, when the owner died, family members started looking for the bear and tracked it to another hangar at the Jones-Riverside Airport.

They said the man was in possession of the bear took it illegally and didn't have the special permits to own a mounted polar bear.

"It's kinda like the title to a car, you can take a car and say it's now my car, but if you don't have the title to the car it's not your car," game warden Carlos Gomez said.

Polar Bear mounts are very rare; the wardens estimate it's worth about $50,000.

There is a similar one in the Anchorage airport.

Wardens say they expect charges or citations to be issued Friday.