Remember This Osama Hunter? He Wasn't That Far Off

Gary Faulkner is happy he won't have to make a return trip to Pakistan to look for Osama bin Laden, the Greeley Tribune of Colorado reports. Faulkner, you'll recall, is the guy who flew to Pakistan on his own last year with the goal of finding and capturing the al-Qaeda leader. How close did he get? Good calculates that he was searching mountains about 270 miles away from where bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad, about the distance from LA to San Francisco.

"It's not like Faulkner was ever on bin Laden's doorstep, but, considering that he was an ex-con on his first bounty hunt, his effort wasn't too shabby," notes the magazine. "Never underestimate an ambitious man with a huge sword." Faulkner gives himself more credit than that: “I was in those mountains when I was arrested,” he tells the Tribune. "I think maybe I flushed him down out of the mountains into the foothills.” Safe bet he won't be cashing in on the $27 billion reward, though. (More Osama bin Laden stories.)