US influencer who once sparked outrage for snatching wombat from its mum arrested on hunting charges
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Samantha Strable became briefly infamous when footage of her sprinting across a road with a visibly terrified baby wombat – while its frantic mother scrambled behind – ricocheted across social media.
PHOTOS: SAM JONES/INSTAGRAM, SUBLETTE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE
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American influencer Samantha Strable – whose grab-and-grin moment with a baby wombat managed to unite Australia in rare national fury earlier in 2025 – has resurfaced, this time in a Wyoming jail cell.
Strable, 25, who also goes by Sam Jones in her online hunting-influencer life, was arrested on Nov 21 in Sublette County after the authorities accused her of lying about where she lives to score coveted Wyoming resident hunting tags.
Court records allege she falsely claimed residency in the landlocked state while actually living in Great Falls, Montana, a discrepancy local officials say she glossed over while collecting multiple licences.
According to local media outlets, prosecutors have filed eight misdemeanour charges, including six counts of false swearing, taking wildlife without a licence and, in a detail that likely will not charm state officials, non-resident hunting in a wilderness area without the required guide.
She was released the same day.
It is not Strable’s first brush with international irritation.
She became briefly infamous in March when footage of her sprinting across an Australian road with a visibly terrified baby wombat – while its frantic mother scrambled behind – ricocheted across social media, enraging Australians from rural Tasmania to Parliament House.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly expressed relief when she left the country
Strable later apologised, claiming she was merely trying to keep the dazed animals from being hit by a car.
In a lengthy online statement, she lamented that “over holding a wombat, thousands threaten my life”, and suggested Australians were being hypocritical about native wildlife.
She stayed largely quiet until August, when US wildlife officials received an anonymous tip alleging she had been bragging to her 90,000-plus followers about continuing to buy Wyoming resident tags despite not having lived there for more than two years.
A search of state licensing records reportedly shows her purchases began in 2022, though her social media posts place her hundreds of kilometres away in Montana and North Dakota during that time.
The charges she now faces carry steep fines and possible jail time, a far cry from the Instagrammable wilderness aesthetic she has long cultivated.
This time, at least, no wombats were involved.
