Law Enforcement Tales

After shooting a bull elk on a Sunday evening recently, a Coeur d'Alene man left it in the woods without even looking for the animal. The shooter, however, did stop by the regional Fish and Game office around noon the next day to ask if anyone had reported him for shooting from the road. He was told that he needed to go back after the elk. Giving him a three hour start, Fish and Game staff drove to the area, found the shooter's truck and watched him pack out only the antlers and cape. Officers seized the antlers, cape, gun, shells, and a bullet from the elk (in the shooter's pocket), and visited the kill site where there had been an effort to conceal the carcass under limbs. The gentleman was cited for waste. In late November, an "artificially simulated animal" (ASA) or dummy deer was placed just outside Heyburn State Park in northern Idaho by Fish and Game officers. That day, three shooters were cited. The first was cited for shooting from a public road, criminal trespass, and for hunting from a motorized vehicle; #2 was cited for shooting from a public road, criminal trespass, and hunting from a motorized vehicle; #3 was cited for shooting from a public road and criminal trespass. Additionally, shooter #2 had blood in his pickup. Where they had placed the ASA there was a fairly fresh drag trail indicating a deer had been killed there recently. As the officers were writing up #2, a local resident drove by and said that #2's vehicle had been there when someone had shot the deer responsible for the drag trail. One of the officers got #2 to confess to shooting a deer earlier and not tagging it. The ASA operation was closed down and two officers were to follow #2 to the house where the illegal deer was hanging. When they got there, #3's vehicle was also thereÉthey were related! When the officers looked in the shed for #2's illegal deer, they discovered there were also two other, untagged deer hanging with it! Those had been shot by #3 and his passenger in previous days. #3 and his passenger, by this time, had fled into the woods behind the house before the officers arrived. #2 ended up with three more citations for failure to validate a deer tag, attempting to overlimit on deer, and obstructing an officer. Eventually, #3 received two more citations for attempting to exceed the bag limit on deer and failure to validate a deer tag. His passenger received two citations for exceeding the bag limit and hunting without a tag. He had killed one of the three untagged deer at #2's house, plus had already tagged a fawn earlier. End result: 15 citations. Additionally, while the officers were trying to find #3's house they accidentally went to a wrong address. A man standing in the yard saw them coming and moved very quickly into the house. One officer checked out back while the other knocked on the front door and they caught the homeowner tagging a deer in the garage. He was given a citation.