With news of the torment and killing of a wolf in Sublette County blowing up all over the world, it’s not a good time to be a guy named Cody Roberts from Wyoming.
“Some people are saying, ‘What a piece of shit you are,’ that people are going to come to my house and take me out in pieces. Some of them get pretty ruthless and pretty graphic,” Cody Roberts of Thayne told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
The only problem is Cody Roberts of Thayne, Wyoming, isn’t the same Cody Roberts accused of running down a wolf with a snowmobile, taping its mouth shut then taking it into a bar to show around before killing the animal. And as the story has blown up, so have the misplaced threats and harassment for others unfortunate enough to also have the common name.
“It’s gotten quite out of hand,” Cody Roberts of Kemmerer told Cowboy State Daily. “They’re definitely wishing harm on us. I’ve had it come from everywhere, from Vegas to New York to Canada.”
Because both men are named Cody Roberts and are from Wyoming, they’ve been mistaken for Cody Roberts, 42, of Daniel, Wyoming, identified as the man posing in a photo with a wolf, with the wolf’s muzzle taped shut.
The photo ties in with the now-infamous Feb. 29 incident in Sublette County.
Roberts of Thyane and Roberts of Kemmerer said they don’t know Roberts of Daniel. And before this all started, they didn’t know each other, either.
They’ve discovered there are at least seven men named Cody Roberts in Wyoming. Roberts of Thayne said two of the other Cody Robertses are his relatives.
Several of the men have connected over the past few days and confirmed that they’ve all been getting threats, he said.
‘Blowing Up On TikTok’
Roberts of Thayne said he’s been answering a nearly constant flow of calls and messages. Some people are hostile right off the bat. Others are more polite once they figure out that he’s not “that” Cody Roberts, he said.
After asking one person where they’d gotten his name, he was sent a link to a TikTok video of a young woman berating the incident with the wolf, taking about “Cody Roberts from Wyoming.”
Apparently there are numerous such videos and posts circulating all over social media, Roberts of Thayne said.
“It’s blowing up all over TikTok,” he said.
Families Get Dragged Into It
The problem is that people are just responding to “Cody Roberts from Wyoming” and aren’t doing any further research before making angry calls or sending threatening messages, Roberts of Thayne said.
And its even extending to their families, he and Roberts of Kemmerer said.
“My wife has been receiving some of these and also a couple of my cousins,” Roberts of Kemmerer said.
“It’s one thing when they were just contacting me, threatening me,” Roberts of Thayne said. “But not they’re starting to harass my family and my kids, and that’s going too far.”
Vitriol is coming from all over the globe, he added.
“It’s coming from England. It’s coming from Japan. My wife got one from Ireland,” Roberts of Thayne said.
And apparently, one’s name doesn’t even have to be Cody Roberts to get pulled in.
Cowboy State Daily texted someone with a Wyoming phone number listed under Cody Roberts on Monday. That person, who will remain anonymous, texted back saying their name isn’t Cody Roberts, but that they had been getting “strange phone calls for the last few days.”
‘Are You Getting These Too?’
Roberts of Kemmerer said he decided to reach out to Roberts of Thayne on Wednesday, even though they’ve never met.
“I asked him, ‘Hey, have you been getting all these (calls and messages) too? And he said he had,” he said.
They and some of the other Cody Roberts around Wyoming started connecting and sharing stories.
Roberts of Kemmerer said his employers have become concerned enough that they told him he might want to consider talking to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office about his safety. He said he hasn’t yet.
Hasn’t Been All Bad
Not all of the correspondence has been nasty, Roberts of Thayne said. It’s been good connecting with Roberts of Kemmerer and others who share the name.
And many of those from around the country and the world who reach out have asked “is this you” in regard to the photo, instead of just launching into a tirade, he said.
Upon finding out they have the wrong guy, many people have been apologetic and supportive, Roberts of Thayne said.
“There was one guy who, once we figured out that we were both hunters, we just had a talk about hunting, and that was pretty cool,” he said.
He added that as a hunter, he condemns what happened to the wolf in Daniel. He said such actions violate hunting ethics of making a quick, humane kill.
So, he understands how the incident has sparked such strong reactions.
“Should people be upset about it? Yeah, they should,” said Roberts of Thayne.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
