Accidents close Interstate 25

CHEYENNE -- A wheel-mounted crane that shouldn't have been on the road caused multi-vehicle wrecks south of Cheyenne that closed the northbound lanes of Interstate 25 for about two hours.

Lt. Troy McLees of the Wyoming Highway Patrol said no one was seriously hurt in the wrecks that involved 11 vehicles Monday morning.

McLees said there were dense fog and icy road conditions when a crane jackknifed about 9:45 a.m. Monday about three-and-a-half miles north of the state line. That caused two other subsequent wrecks.

He said the crane was an oversized load that was prohibited on the highway at the time because of the weather conditions.

Southbound lanes of I-25 remained open to traffic.

McLees said the accident remains under investigation.

Break-in leads to 2 charges

CHEYENNE -- A southeastern Wyoming man has been charged with sexual assault and felony burglary after police say he broke into a woman's house and fondled her in bed after she mistook him for her boyfriend.

Court documents show the 36-year-old woman told police last month that after she realized Royce M. Illingworth was not her boyfriend, she told him to leave her Cheyenne home and he asked to use the bathroom.

Police said in court documents that Illingworth used the bathroom while the woman called authorities and he eventually left after allegedly breaking into the house about 5:45 a.m. on Sept. 26.

Illingworth, a 32-year-old Cheyenne landscaper, faces up to 20 years in prison for the sexual assault charge and another decade for the burglary charge.

G&F: How to avoid bears

JACKSON -- The Wyoming Game and Fish Department says hunters in western Wyoming should be prepared to take a few simple steps to avoid run-ins with grizzly bears.

Jackson game warden Bill Long said several Wyoming hunters have had confrontations with grizzly bears this fall. Some grizzlies have even visited hunter camps.

Grizzlies can be a threat to hunters, but such encounters often don't end well for the bear.

The department suggests always keeping a clean camp, carrying bear pepper spray at several locations around camp, carrying bear spray while hunting and keeping an eye out for bear tracks and other signs of bears.

Other recommendations include packing out a kill as quickly as possible and hanging in a tree what can't be packed out right away.

Guard soldiers to return

CHEYENNE -- Twenty-one soldiers with the Wyoming Army National Guard's Charlie Med unit are expected to return home from deployment in Afghanistan later this month.

The soldiers, all members of C Company, 5th Battalion, 159th General Support Aviation Brigade, have spent a year performing medical evacuation missions in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

The soldiers are expected to arrive in Wyoming on Wednesday at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Cheyenne.