Man charged after reportedly throwing 11 electric scooters in the Snake River
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IDAHO FALLS — A 33-year-old man was arrested and charged with a felony after police say he threw 11 electric scooters into the Snake River.
Nathan Frost of Idaho Falls was charged with felony malicious injury to property and misdemeanor resisting or obstructing officers.
According to court documents, on July 14, Idaho Falls Police officers were dispatched to John’s Hole Forebay at 950 River Parkway after a report that a man, later identified as Frost, was throwing Bird-branded electric scooters into the river.
The reporting party said Frost was wearing a blue-grey shirt and grey shorts and was riding on a one-wheel motorized scooter along the Idaho Falls Greenbelt Riverwalk.
Officers checked the area and eventually spotted Frost near the Residence Inn, heading southbound along the greenbelt. An officer caught up with him and turned on her emergency lights, indicating that Frost needed to stop.
Police reports say Frost continued to ride along a canal bank and refused to listen to officers’ commands.
An officer yelled at Frost from the south side of Guns and Gear to stop, but he didn’t.
Police then set up a perimeter to contain Frost and caught him near 1350 Whitewater Drive after he “jumped off his one-wheel scooter and ran on foot,” according to court documents.
Witnesses told police Frost had pushed approximately 11 Bird scooters into the river or adjacent canal. According to police reports, each scooter is worth $699.
Frost was booked into the Bonneville County Jail and released on July 15 to pre-trial supervision on his own recognizance.
He is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on July 26. If convicted, he could face up to six years in prison.
EastIdahoNews.com contacted a local fleet manager for an electric scooter company to provide context on the consequences of throwing electric scooters into the river.
According to the source, who prefers to remain anonymous, it is much more dangerous than one may think.
“When one of those scooters goes in the river, it can’t come back out,” says the manager. “It’s unusable. It’s too high of risk for us to let the public use it again.”
He also says it’s risky for his workers to go into the water and save them, and he worries that the batteries could harm the local aquifer.
“Another thing, if we’re putting lithium-ion batteries in our water, what’s it going to do to the aquifer?” says the manager. “That’s one of the main reasons I stress to my guys to make sure you get them out of the water in a timely manner so we don’t have any damage to the water.”
According to the manager, damage to the scooters also poses a potential hardship for the community, some of whom rely on the scooters to get to work during the warmer months.
“They are used by a lot of individuals for commuting to and from work. They park their cars in the spring and ride (the scooters) all summer, spring, and fall until I put them away and they get their cars back out,” said the manager. “It’s saving a lot of people money. But never is it meant to be a nuisance to anyone using the greenbelt path.”