Behind the Badge - Heedless
Heedless
District Game Warden Andrew Dahlgren
Nonresident duck openers are usually very busy days for wardens. My 2018 duck opener was unusually busy with two state radio calls and numerous violations. I had gone home later in the afternoon and was immediately called back out. The reporting party had watched a Wisconsin hunter shoot at a pheasant on his posted property.
I headed over to the area and located the vehicle and stopped it. The passenger jumped out of the vehicle, and I could immediately smell alcohol on him. The driver, who was the alleged shooter, denied shooting at pheasants and admitted to shooting at mourning doves. The driver did not have a small game license and was cited for the violation. The passenger admitted to having a glass of whiskey that he was drinking and was cited for open container.
Since I had been called out, I figured I might as well work the rest of the evening and quickly found two out-of-state vehicles sitting by a slough. After the first volley of shots, I located four hunters in the cattails hunting ducks. I watched them from about 6 p.m. until sunset at 7:16 p.m. I figured the hunters would pick up at sunset. I was wrong. They kept hunting and fired 20 more shots at ducks after sunset. Sixteen minutes after sunset, I had enough and drove out to their location. I asked the first hunter I encountered why the group was still hunting. He responded that they could still see. I explained that legal shooting hours had ended 16 minutes earlier and directed the hunters to unload their shotguns.
I proceeded to start a waterfowl hunting check. I could smell alcohol on two of the three hunters that walked out to me, and both admitted to drinking. The fourth hunter was still in the cattails and I walked over to his location with his son. The hunter was an older gentleman and could not get up. His shotgun was lying mostly submerged in the water and there were beer cans all over the place. I informed the hunter that I was going to pick up his shotgun and unload it. I drained the water out of the barrel while unloading four shotgun shells and explained that hunting with an unplugged shotgun was illegal.
After rounding up all four of the hunters, I finished my waterfowl check. The older gentleman was not licensed at all; his son had a license but was hunting in the wrong waterfowl zone. The other two hunters were legally licensed, and the hunters were well below their limit of birds.
I then started testing the hunters for hunting under the influence. The son was just under the legal limit, and the third hunter was at about half of the legal limit. The older gentleman said that he knew a warden who he was friends with in North Dakota and asked if he could call him prior to testing. I told him he could call after the tests if he wanted.
I had the older gentleman perform field sobriety tests and he failed to finish the tests. His preliminary breath test put him well over the legal limit for hunting and I placed him under arrest. As he was an older gentleman, I handcuffed him in the front and gave him his phone. While we were driving to the courthouse in LaMoure, I got a text message from a Minnesota number. I didn’t think much about it and checked it when we came to a stop sign.
The individual’s text said that they were in North Dakota hunting and having some trouble. I responded asking what was going on and continued driving to LaMoure. As we got closer to LaMoure, I got a response and I checked my message at another stop sign. The individual said that he was dealing with one of my co-workers and that my co-worker was being very difficult.
It was at this time that I realized my passenger was texting me to have me help him deal with me. Now, this put me in quite an interesting predicament, and I figured that I had a couple options. The first option was to tell my passenger that he was texting me. The second option was to respond and see how I could improve my customer relations. I chose the second option and again responded asking for greater detail.
We arrived at the courthouse, and the gentleman consented to an Intoxilyzer breath test. He blew over the legal limit and was charged with hunting under the influence and hunting without a license. He was also cited with hunting after legal shooting hours and use of an unplugged shotgun. He lost his hunting privileges for a year and paid $1,450 in fines and fees. He never really said what his issue was during our text conversation but made it clear that he did not think he was being treated fairly.
After he left, I was curious how this gentleman knew me and thought we were friends, so I checked his name in our reporting history and found a report from five years earlier. During that incident a LaMoure County deputy arrested his son for DUI and needed assistance. I arrived and found a loaded gun, breasted-out geese and birds that appeared to have been shot with a rifle. When I questioned this gentleman, he admitted to hunting furbearers without a license and was issued two citations and two warnings during this previous incident.