Last year, the utility

An elephant arrives at its new home in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state, after being transported from Ostok Sanctuary in the outskirts of Culiacan, Mexico, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)An elephant arrives at its new home in Mazatlan, Sinaloa state, after being transported from Ostok Sanctuary in the outskirts of Culiacan, Mexico, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Three Montana Army National Guard members face trespassing charges after authorities said they landed a Black Hawk helicopter in a mountain pasture on a private ranch to take several elk antlers before flying away.A witness saw the May 4 landing and the person who owns the property reported it to officials, who tracked down the three guard members, Sweet Grass County Sheriff Alan Ronneberg said Thursday.

The guardsmen had been on a training flight from the city of Billings to Helena, the state capital, said Major Ryan Finnegan with the Montana National Guard. The helicopter landed briefly in the pasture located in the foothills of the Crazy Mountains, where the crew members picked up two individual antlers and an old elk skull with antlers still attached, the sheriff said.Elk antlers — which grow and drop off male animals annually — are highly prized and can be sold by the pound. They also are collected from the wild as keepsakes.

The antlers and skull taken by the guardsmen were worth a combined $300 to $400, according to Ronneberg. They were later turned over to a state game warden.

Trespassers taking antlers from private land is not uncommon in Montana and other western states.Samantha Gaines of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals warned against the “glamorization” of painful ear-cropping on breeds like Doberman and Cane Corso. The procedure is prohibited in England and Wales, but it’s legal to import them that way.

It’s unknown if break-ins at wealthy homes are increasing, but statistics for England and Wales show residential burglaries overall are decreasing.From the year ending March 2018 to the year ending September 2024, there was a 42% drop, according to figures from the

Just a small percentage of burglaries get solved, however. Only indid police chiefs commit to responding to all break-ins.