'I'm a bad person': Woman banned from all national parks after vandalising rocks
A woman who painted and drew on treasured natural rock formations at national parks across Los Angeles has been banned from more than a fifth of the US.
Casey Nocket defaced natural formations at seven national parks by drawing or painting on them with acrylic paint and markers along with her signature handle "Creepytings."
Last week, the 23-year-old pleaded guilty to seven misdemeanors counts of defiling rock formations with graffiti in national parks.
A California judge banned Nocket from land managed by the National Park Service as well as the US Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Army Corps of Engineers, CTV reports.
The San Diego woman was also sentenced to two years' probation and 200 hours of community service.
In autumn 2014, she defiled rocks at Death Valley and Yosemite National Parks in California, Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Zion National Park in Utah.
Nocket shared her work on Instagram and Tumblr to document her trip and her graffiti-like work, causing outrage on social media.
One Instagram post, which has since been taken down, Nocket replied to a user who asked what she was using and admits it was acrylic paint.
"I know, I'm a bad person," she wrote.
Some of Nocket's vandalism caused serious cleanup problems at the national parks and extreme methods have and will be used to remove it.
Sandblasting and chemical stripping were used to remove the paint and reportedly causes even more damage to irreplaceable natural features.
"The defendant's defacement of multiple rock formations showed a lack of respect for the law and our shared national treasures," acting US Atty. Phillip A. Talbert, said according to the Los Angeles Times.
At two parks, Crater Lake and Death Valley in California, the cleaning has yet to be completed nearly two years later.
On June 14, she appeared at a Fresno federal court in California and declined to make a statement on her own behalf during a sentencing hearing .
Nocket will have a later hearing will determine how much restitution she must pay to help with the cleanup.
News break – June 23
