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<title>Daily Darwin: Thursday, November 13, 2025 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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Daily Darwin: Thursday, November 13, 2025

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

[{"type":"text","text":"Some people buy old work vans because they're practical."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Parker Williams bought one because he wanted to turn it into a giant dog."}]

The 20-year-old Powell resident was scrolling through ideas one day when inspiration struck — "randomly," he told Cowboy State Daily. 

His favorite movie has always been the 1993 comedy "Dumb and Dumber," starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. More specifically, he's always loved the hopelessly optimistic duo of Lloyd Christmas (Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Daniels).

"I wanted to make something outstanding," Williams said. "Something affordable and cool."

So why not recreate one of the most recognizable movie vehicles ever built?

He found an old electrical van "for cheap," recruited his best friend Seth Siebert, and over about three days transformed the $3,000 van into a shaggy, four-legged tribute to the 1994 comedy.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Built For Laughs"}]

Williams spends much of his free time filming YouTube videos with friends. The van was simply another ambitious project for 

Building it, he said, was more complicated than he expected.

[{"type":"text","text":"The hardest part was making the giant dog roadworthy."}]

The pair spent hours wiring custom headlights and blinkers so it could legally travel Wyoming roads.

"It took way more carpet than I thought," Williams said with a laugh. 

Constructing the oversized nose was a challenge, too. Hidden beneath the carpet is a framework built from 2x4s and plywood.

After finishing, Williams even drove it to the Powell Police Department, where officers conducted an inspection.

[{"type":"text","text":"He says it passed, and the furry creation is completely street legal."}]

Somewhat disappointingly, Williams added, he still hasn't been pulled over.

The Mutt Cutts van earned its place in movie history when Christmas and Dunne are pulled over because a state trooper suspects they've been drinking while driving.

Trying to be helpful, Lloyd hands the officer what he thinks is an open beer. Instead, it's a bottle containing Harry's urine, which Harry had been saving because they had been driving long stretches without stopping.

The trooper takes a swig before realizing what it is, spits it out, and — so disgusted — lets the pair go without pursuing the stop further.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Instant Celebrity"}]

"It gets every reaction possible," Williams said. Most are overwhelmingly positive.

Everywhere he goes, strangers stop him for photos, ask questions and smile.

Williams recently drove it as far as Minnesota for a CboysTV car show, where it drew crowds despite sharing space with far more expensive builds.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"My mother is not super fond of it,\" he joked."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The biggest issue, he explained, isn't the attention."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"It's really just having it in her garage all the time,” he said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Bad weather presents another challenge."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"An 8,000-pound carpeted dog doesn't perform well when wet. "}]

Williams recalled getting the van hopelessly stuck before spending hours cleaning off the mud.

"I basically had to shampoo the whole thing," he said. "It was a nightmare."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Best Friends"}]

When Williams first pitched the idea roughly two years ago, his best friend didn't hesitate.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Sure, sounds fun,\" Siebert remembers saying. "}]

The two had recently graduated from high school and were simply looking for something memorable to do.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Parker is about as good a friend as you can have,\" Siebert said."}]

When they aren't filming YouTube videos, the pair likes working on trucks, mudding in the woods and dreaming up their next adventure.

Siebert has been tinkering in garages for as long as he can remember, helping his father with projects.

[{"type":"text","text":"Mechanics, he said, remain more of a hobby than anything else."}]

Helping build a giant dog just happened to be one of the more unusual ones.

Siebert says some of his favorite moments have come while pulling through McDonald's drive-thrus.

"It's just cool seeing people's reactions," he said. "Them just working a normal shift and seeing some big dog come through."

[{"type":"text","text":"The friends are already brainstorming their next outrageous project."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Whatever it is, Siebert doubts the Mutt Cutts van is going anywhere."}]

He figures it's destined to remain exactly where it spends much of its downtime today.

[{"type":"text","text":"Parker's mother's garage."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Comedy"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"For Wyoming movie lover Kelly Eastes, none of this is surprising."}]

Eastes serves as Film Casper liaison for Visit Casper, helping connect filmmakers with locations, local resources and production support throughout central Wyoming. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He remembers \"Dumb and Dumber\" well."}]

"It seems like comedies are rarer nowadays," Eastes said. "It would be nice to have more of them."

Directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the film debuted at No. 1 at the North American box office during its opening weekend and eventually earned nearly $250 million worldwide, becoming one of the defining comedies of the '90s.

More than 30 years later, Eastes believes the film continues to resonate because good stories outlive generations.

"They resonate because multiple generations understand them," he said. "I believe that the way we connect, even generationally, is through stories and films. Storytelling has been our way of educating the youth for as long as we've been on the planet."

That's why he isn't surprised two young Wyoming men who weren't even born when the movie premiered would re-create one of its most recognizable props.

Along with a lot of mindless fun, the Mutt Cutts van project also has prompted Williams to do some deep soul searching.

After checking in on some of his high school classmates and what they're doing in their young adult lives, Williams compared those achievements to making a shaggy dog van.

“I don’t know if that means I’m majorly failing in life or I don’t have my priorities right," he mused in a YouTube video while building the van.

Mutt Cutts IMG 3999 7 5 26

<title>Powell Man Tuns $3,000 Van Into ‘Dumb And Dumber’ Mutt Cutts Shaggin’ Wagon | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Powell man who built a "Dumb And Dumber" Mutt Cutts van replica with his best friend says it turns heads everywhere they drive it. Bad weather presents a challenge, he said. When the 8,000-pound carpeted dog got caught in the rain, he had to shampoo it. 

Powell Man Tuns $3,000 Van Into ‘Dumb And Dumber’ Mutt Cutts Shaggin’ Wagon

Crime & Courts

CASPER — Thirteen years ago, James Pulver sat in a jail cell wondering whether his life was over.

At 24, he was facing federal kidnapping and domestic violence-related charges and staring at a $100,000 cash bond — an amount so far beyond his reach it may as well have been $1 million.

He remembers the clang of the steel doors, the uncertainty, and the crushing realization that he had no idea what happened next.

"You don't know anything," Pulver recalls "You don't know the process. You don't know the courts. You don't know what's coming."

Eventually, Pulver accepted a plea agreement, pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence and misdemeanor theft after spending 367 days in the Fremont County Detention Center.

He still insists the most serious allegations against him weren't true, but says the experience permanently changed how he views people accused of crimes.

Today, when someone in Wyoming is arrested and their family doesn't know where to turn, there's a decent chance the phone rings on Pulver's desk.

[{"type":"text","text":"The irony isn't lost on him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Before I was a bail bondsman,\" he said, \"I was an inmate.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Bond"}]

Most people picture a bail bondsman as someone who signs paperwork, takes a fee and disappears.

Pulver, who lives in Casper, laughs at that; he said he believes his job is to guide defendants through one of the most frightening experiences of their lives.

[{"type":"text","text":"He said his sister calls him the \"bail bond doula.\""}]

His advice starts immediately. He tells his bondees: eat well, get sunlight, and stay sober. 

"You're already walking in there in shackles looking guilty," he said. "They're literally judging you."

Know your lawyer's phone number. Know your address before standing in front of a judge.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wear your nicest clothes."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Be clean-shaven."}]

Pulver tells clients they have an advantage once they're released on bond: they can prepare.

[{"type":"text","text":"Someone sitting in jail cannot."}]

"If you're out," he said, "you can do all these things that make you look better."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Freedom Business "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver's work exists because of one uniquely American business model."}]

When a judge sets bail, defendants who can't afford to post the full amount often hire a commercial bail bondsman.

Typically, the defendant pays a nonrefundable premium — about 10% of the total bond — while the bondsman guarantees the full amount to the court.

[{"type":"text","text":"For a $10,000 bond, that usually means paying around $1,000."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The fee is never returned, but the real risk belongs to the bondsman. "}]

If the defendant disappears and fails to appear in court, the bondsman is on the hook for the entire bond.

[{"type":"text","text":"That's why Pulver almost never accepts a bond without collateral."}]

[{"type":"text","text":" \"Cars. Land. I'll take your parents' house,\" he says. "}]

Pulver says the collateral often tells a bigger story than the crime itself. When parents, spouses or siblings are willing to put their own home on the line, he sees more than financial security—he sees a support system.

Some defendants, he said, don't have that luxury. Years of addiction, broken promises or repeated arrests have left them with no one left to call. That's often when he knows the odds of success are much lower.

"The family is what they need," Pulver said. "That's who's going to help them the most."

It's also why he bristles when people assume bounty hunters spend their days chasing criminals for fun.

"My job isn't to catch bad guys," he said. "My job is to get them to court."

[{"type":"text","text":"\"All this chasing and kicking down doors — that's TV.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then he smiles."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're just trying to save our money.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Waiting ..."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver's first fugitive recovery began with a 16-hour drive to Texas."}]

A veteran bounty hunter named Craig Zibell had offered to teach him the business. Their first assignment was to find a Wyoming fugitive accused of stealing his father's pickup, driving it to Denver and boarding a plane south.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver had never tracked anyone previously."}]

By the time they reached Texas, he'd pieced together the man's whereabouts through Facebook posts and other online clues. The trail led them to an apartment complex.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then everything stopped."}]

For nearly three days, the pair sat in a truck watching a single apartment door.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"You don't move,\" Pulver said. \"You just sit there and stare.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Food stayed in the cab. Bathroom breaks were carefully timed."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Hours slipped into days."}]

Pulver learned then and there that being a bounty hunter requires a lot of patience. 

[{"type":"text","text":"The stakeout eventually paid off."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The fugitive walked outside and the arrest happened without much drama."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rolling Downhill"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Not every recovery ends quietly."}]

One fugitive had been repeatedly contacting a woman against orders.

Pulver and another recovery agent borrowed a vehicle and positioned themselves nearby, hoping the man would appear.

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver sprinted toward him."}]

Instead of surrendering, the man — whom Pulver estimates weighed around 280 pounds — turned and threw a punch.

Within seconds, the two men were tumbling down a steep hillside in the dark.

"I grabbed him by the collar," Pulver recalled. "I made sure I landed 

[{"type":"text","text":"They rolled to the bottom still fighting."}]

Pulver eventually gained control long enough for his partner to help secure the arrest.

[{"type":"text","text":"The bruises lingered for weeks."}]

He still keeps photographs on his phone showing the deep purple marks stretching across his back.

[{"type":"text","text":"His wife later said, \"James, you've got to do things smarter.\" "}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'He's Got a Gun!' "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"No bond is worth someone getting killed” Pulver says. "}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The most dangerous recovery he remembers wasn't one he finished himself."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"It started with a runner who crossed state lines into rural Utah."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Pulver followed leads until local authorities became involved."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then the operation exploded into helicopters circling overhead."}]

Drones launched, and a SWAT team appeared out of nowhere.  Armored vehicles rolled into position.

Pulver found himself standing at the command post listening to radio traffic alongside law enforcement officers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came the transmission:"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"He's got a gun! He's got a gun!\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"For several agonizing minutes, no one said anything."}]

Pulver remembers staring at the radios, wondering if someone had just been killed.

[{"type":"text","text":"Finally, another voice broke through."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We got him.\""}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The suspects were taken into custody."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Half-Million-Dollar Gamble"}]

In 2020, Pulver agreed to post a $500,000 cash-or-surety bond for Danelle Moyte, a Cheyenne second-grade teacher charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of her boyfriend, Christopher Garcia.

Prosecutors alleged that Moyte shot Garcia inside their home after an argument. She maintained that she acted in self-defense and pleaded not guilty.

[{"type":"text","text":"Writing a half-million-dollar bond wasn't simply a business decision."}]

It was a financial gamble large enough to destroy his company if it went wrong.

Pulver said he only agreed after Moyte's family came forward with what he considers the two most important ingredients for any bond: support and accountability. 

A family member pledged a fully paid-off home as collateral. The family promised to help ensure Moyte complied with every court order.

Moyte remained free while awaiting trial under strict conditions, including GPS monitoring.

[{"type":"text","text":"She found work loading UPS trucks overnight."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Pulver, that mattered."}]

One of the first things he tells clients after bonding them out is to find employment, establish routine and show judges they're making productive use of their freedom.

When Moyte's case finally went to trial, a 12-person jury acquitted her of all charges.

James Pulver Screenshot 2026 07 05 at 9 14 48 AM 7 5 26

<title>Wyoming Bondsman Is Part Bounty Hunter, Part Counselor — And A Former Inmate | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper bail bondsman has an unorthodox job that requires him to be part bounty hunter and part life counselor. And he can empathize with his clients. "Before I was a bail bondsman, I was an inmate," he said.

Wyoming Bondsman Is Part Bounty Hunter, Part Counselor — And A Former Inmate

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Energy

Jeffrey City is best known for uranium and near abandonment after the yellowcake market crashed in the 1980s. 

But things are looking up for the near-ghost town in the central desert region of Fremont County. 

And that’s not because of Wyoming’s renewed uranium rush or Visionary Metals’ new nickel project nearby. 

Jeffrey City, which has about 60 residents after boasting around 4,000 during its uranium heyday, could be poised for a brand-new industry thanks to a Canadian geologist named Jean-Pierre Jutras, who said he’s on the verge of finding significant new sources of both ornamental and gem-quality jade.

“Wyoming jade is legendary in the circles of jade carvers,” Jutras told Cowboy State Daily. “Production has been curtailed for a long time, and everything’s been looked at quite a bit and picked over, but when I looked at Wyoming as a geologist, what struck me was that there was barely any information at all on the geology.”

Jutras’ company, Jade Leader, is taking a similar tack to that of 

, which is using new geological knowledge and new technology to uncover deeper veins of gold in the South Pass area and other Wyoming locations.

“We just decided to take a hard look and see if the sources of a lot of the surface material that was collected from the '30s all the way to the '70s could be identified and if we could understand if there was any significant potential for renewed production.”

At one time, Wyoming had so much jade laying around on the surface people could walk around and pluck it straight from the sagebrush.

That supported roughly 868 tons of jade production from the 1930s to the 1970s. There was even a company devoted to jewelry production that was sending 18 tons of materials into the world annually, to Taiwan, New Zealand, Europe, and Far Eastern countries.

But as the easy jade became rarer and rarer, the state could no longer support the scale anymore. 

Wyoming’s decline happened about the same time as the Canadian jade industry was starting to rise.

How A Canadian Became A ‘Jade-aholic’

Growing up in Canada, Jutras was interested in rocks and geology from a young age. A career as a geologist only seemed logical. 

In the 1980s, he was gifted some jade from a mine he was allowed to visit, which honed his interest in this semiprecious stone formed by intense environmental conditions found deep underground. 

“I took that home and I’ve been cutting and carving jade and other gemstones ever since then, alongside my geological career,” he said. “So I kind of became a jade-aholic very quickly, very early.”

It wasn’t until he was invited to a jade-carving competition in China, though, that he realized just how interesting — and valuable — jade is.

“To me, jade was like the little souvenirs and tourist shop pieces,” he said. “Once in a while there’s a historical piece that’s really nice. So I went to this festival not knowing what to expect.”

When he arrived at the Zi Gang Bei Festival in Suzhou, he witnessed a spectacle unlike any he’d never seen.

There were 550 competing jade carvers who had brought more than 1,100 pieces for judging. 

During the three-day event, more than 90,000 visitors streamed in to admire the pieces entered in the competition, as well as to buy jade. 

“I was so impressed, first, because of the quality of the carvings that were there, valued in the millions of dollars per piece,” Jutras said. “And we saw jades of all qualities. We saw carvings from Guatemala, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, the U.S., and, of course, China. And I looked at all of this and went, ‘I’m missing something here. How did I not know about this?’”

Jutras had planned to stay for just a week, but decided instead to stay longer and keep exploring this vast new world of jade, visiting all the carving towns and all of the major markets.

“In one of the towns I visited, called Shifosi, they said they had 125,000 carvers, just in that one town alone,” he said. “It was incredible, and essentially all of the businesses in China that sell jade go there because that’s the big manufacturing center. And I mean, it was display after display, buildings the size of airplane hangars, with 2,000, 3,000 vendors in them.”

It was during this time that he learned the jade the Chinese most prized came from Wyoming. It was also the jade that had disproportionately earned gold medals during the festival.

“It’s received extremely well at the highest level, in a culture highly sophisticated in the jade arts,” Jutras said.

Known for uranium and then near-abandonment, Jeffrey City is getting a second look from a Canadian geologist who says new science — and evolving markets — could turn Wyoming’s deposits of jade into a new industry for the tiny almost-ghost town.

Daily Darwin: Thursday, November 13, 2025

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Daily Darwin: Thursday, November 13, 2025

In case you missed it

Authors

CSD Staff

Writer

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Daily Darwin: Sunday, July 5, 2026

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Daily Darwin: Friday, July 3, 2026

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