Poachers Busted!

[HSRidge]

Just wanted to give a salute to Adams County Wildlife Officer, Chris Gilkey, for an excellent job this past weekend.

I've had an issue for the past few years with dogs running deer on my place. Last year, things changed when I actually heard a guy on a neighboring property working his dogs during gun season. That led me to suspect I had a poaching problem rather than just a dog issue.

Fast forward to last Saturday....I get in early and set-up for a morning hunt and then just before 8:00 I hear the dogs start trailing across my farm. About 15 minutes later my buddy sends me a text "TRESSPASSER". I head down the hill to meet him but by the time I get there the guy had left. My buddy tells me that the guy has 3 beagles with him. This guy also told him that he was part of a larger group that was also using dogs.

I called the TIP line and after a painful conversation with a gentleman who was definately not from Ohio, Officer Gilkey called me back within minutes. My buddy and I met with him at my truck and relayed the complaint. It is very rugged country, and finding the perpetrators would not be easy. However, Officer Gilkey stuck with it and busted the tresspasser and the owner of the dogs.

Officer Gilkey contacted me later that evening to close the case. The tresspasser received several tickets ranging from hunting without permission to hunting with dogs. The owner of the dogs was also ticketed and admitted to using them in the area for years.

I hope this curtails some of my tresspassing/theft/dog issues...it can't hurt.

[mrbb]

I am gald to finally hear a good trespassing story

sounds like you have a good warden
and hope this puts a dent in your trouble or better stops them!

But sadly when you said he has been doing it for yrs, that makes me thinks he will be back again

guys like that don't seem to learn very well

But I do hope I'm wrong, just keep it in the back of your head next yr if problems still happen, maybe then you can get him a second time, most wardens like to get the same guys twice! lol! and some times second tme, they get even more fines!

[ohiohunts]

I'm just glad to hear someone followed through and the problem has been resolved.

[taylor6400]

Good to hear. Thanks for passing ont he good news. Always nice to hear of positive experiences with the game warden!

I had a good one with ours a couple years ago too. I dropped a friend off (his land) on one end of his propperty and i was driving around to the other for an evening sit during gun season. My cell phone rings and he says come back over here and park in the well road theres a tresspasser here. So i called the sheriff's office on my way and as i was pulling in the poacher was trying to get out and i parked him in. Needless to say i thought it was going to turn ugly but the deputy showed up with the game warden pretty quickly. They had had complaints on that vehicle already so they were anxious to get him. Guy and HIS SON had just shot a buck right in the middle of my friends field. They tried to say they shot it across the fence line so the GW says well lets go look at the drag marks (snow ont he ground). Yeah, he charged them with tresspassing, hunting without written permission, impropper tagging, and one other offense. Too bad it probably didnt stop these hillbillys from doing it again...

[blackbeard]

So these two were trespassing and hunting with dogs during gun season and they thought they were going to get away with it? What a pair of idiots those two were.

[MICH]

great story, the G.W. in scioto ( MATT....something ) has been very helpful & SEEMSTO BE VERY NICE..........i have dog problems also

[gonehunting 45]

now thats a story you like to hear.

[bds9]

Can't say enough about Chris Gilkey, I really thought our previous GW (Kevin Baer) would be hard to replace, but Chris has done a great job in my book. He is the GW working the case on my buck, whether I get it back or not he has gone far and beyond I ever would've imagined he would!!

[indiancreekpsychopathic]

Great to hear there was a quick response and the offenders were caught. I've had similar experience with Officer Gilkey, prompt response, thorough investigation....does an excellent job.
I've also heard rumors the dnr has plain clothes officers working undercover in some of the areas where they're getting frequent complaints this year.

[fatboy]

Good news. I have permission to hunt a farm in Highland Co but for my own safety haven't been all year. Last season while in a stand on the edge of a field, the renters of another house adjacent blasted in on a 4 wheeler and emptied a 9mm clip in the air and rode off. By the time the sheriff arrived they were long gone. As much as I like to hunt, it's not worth my life.

[HSRidge]

Thanks for the replys guys. I agree that there's a good chance these idiots will be back at again, but hopefully they think twice about doing it on or next to my farm since they now know I'll turn 'em in.

Indiancreek - the rumors are true....there were a couple of plain clothes officers called in on this case. You wouldn't know them from another hunter.

[HSRidge]

Just seen in the paper that the owner of the dogs was fined $50 for hunting with dogs and had $64 in court costs....not much of a deterent there. The guy that was on my place did get a $150 fine for hunting without permission, $50 for hunting with dogs, $50 for no deer tag, and had $108 in court costs.

It must be frustrating for the Wildlife Officers to put in the time and then see the poachers get so small of a fine.

[mrbb]

sadly thats seems to be why so many cheat

up here we aren't even be able to get them on trespassing by the game dept, they pass the buck to the local police, and if there busy, they don't even like to get involved when a game law is involved

need stiffer fines
and I even liked the old ways when up here game wardens used to get a percentage of fines, to motivate them to get more involved

only problem was they abused that option and this lost it
but it did stop a lot of folks from doing wrong, as the wardens were known to be hungry for money by writing fines and looking all the time for cheaters!!!!
I even remeber when they used to hunt down rifle shots in the evening , just hoping to catch a guy for the few bucks they got off catching them, even if it wasn't for rthe game/animals, it got them a lot more cheaters money!!

[deerguy10]

wow... just doesn't seem right... I think I have had a more expensive speeding ticket... glad to hear the guys got caught, but steeper punishment is a must!

[Genesis 9:3]

What happened to having all of your equipment confiscated?

When I read the rules last year, before I was a 6 month resident, I was soooo tempted to buy a in state license (if I could) and go hunting... but when I read that all your stuff could be taken away I held off.

From what you guys said, if I had been caught it wouldn't have cost me much! Don't get me wrong, I want to do what's right... but it sure doesn't offer a lot of encouragement to obey the rules!

[ohiohunts]

Are you kidding me. You can break into someone's house and steal all their sh**, get caught, and be out on probation in less than two weeks these days. The justice system has become a joke. It's no wonder people are loosing a sense of right and wrong, there is no consequence for your actions these days. I think they should have their equipment confiscated and hunting license revoked for minimum 2 years for first offense, maybe 5 years.

[fatboy]

I stopped hunting my friends land in Adams co due to several similar run ins.
It just became too iffy to travel out and not know if dogs,4-wheelers or people were going to interrupt my sit. It's a shame because that was the only place I had to hunt within 120 miles. Worrying more about which CCW weapon I was going to carry to protect myself instead of ground blind vs tree stand took all the fun out of deer season.