In Aspen, even the homeless eat like kings.

That was the message received by a sergeant with the Aspen Police Department on Tuesday evening after he checked on a report of smoke coming from a popular homeless campsite in the Castle Creek Valley near Aspen Valley Hospital.

Sgt. Rob Fabrocini said he was coming on duty Tuesday evening when a fellow sergeant asked him to check out the smoke. So he tromped through the brush and found two homeless men well-known to local police with a full hibachi.

“They were grilling — are you ready for this — lobster tails, rack of lamb and salmon steaks,” Fabrocini said. “They also had a 12-pack of Stella [beer] that was unopened, and I said, ‘You guys can’t be cooking in the woods when it’s this dry.'”

To his surprise, the men then opened three or four of the beers and doused the fire, he said.

The men told Fabrocini they’d just received a paycheck and were celebrating with the choice meal, he said.

“I said, ‘You guys are eating pretty good,'” Fabrocini said. “It was a little hibachi grill, and it was loaded.”

The sergeant said the meal easily topped his dinner of cold pizza.

Fabrocini said he tries to be sympathetic to people’s situations and even suggested a spot where the men might be able to finish cooking the food. The men were not arrested or cited, he said.