Behind the Badge - Spot the Lie
Spot the Lie
District Game Warden Nicholas Tschepen
Trespassing calls are some of the most common calls game wardens receive and they’re all different. Many times, by the time we take the call and respond, the suspect or suspects have already left the scene. Other times, we're fortunate enough to have the suspect or suspects still on scene and this may prove critical in the investigation.
During the 2025 deer gun season I was informed of a hunting on posted land complaint in my district by my neighboring warden. He informed me the suspect’s truck was still on the property and that the reporting party (RP) was waiting at the scene.
When I got to the property I spoke with the RP who informed me the property was electronically posted, and nobody should be hunting it. When I asked where the suspect was, he pointed to a truck that had been parked on the property slightly tucked away behind some trees making it barely visible from the road. After getting a written statement from the RP, I told him he could go and that I would wait for the suspect to return.
A short time later, I watched a man in camouflage walk out of the woods. When I first saw him, he wasn't carrying anything. When I asked the suspect what he had been doing, he told me he was just checking on a blind he had set up. He then disclosed that he wasn’t too sure about property he was on. When I asked if he had done any hunting yet, he said no. I explained to him that the property was electronically posted against hunting and pointed out some physical signs that were posted next to his truck.
When I asked if he had his hunting license on him, he told me he left his wallet at home and that he had both his hunting and driver’s license in it. After he provided me with name and date of birth, I looked him up in our licensing system and found he didn’t have a hunting license.
When I told him he didn't have any hunting licenses, he told me he hadn’t done any hunting, yet because every time he tried to buy a license online something went wrong. This bit of information proved interesting later in my investigation.
I asked him to take me to his blind, which he agreed to do. The “blind,” built on posted land, was just vegetation on the ground that he did little to improve concealment or create shooting lanes.
After returning to our vehicles, I ran his information through state radio and learned he did not have a valid driver's license. Although he tried telling me that was not right and that he had gotten that all figured out, I explained to him that we were going to wait until a licensed driver could pick him up.
After a friend picked him up, I felt I had plenty of red flags that told me I was still missing something and began searching the property for anything that I could have missed. Sure enough, right where I watched him walk out of the woods, lying next to a tree, was a crossbow. This wasn’t just a normal crossbow though. It had a little extra pizazz added onto it with a mounted flashlight. I seized the crossbow and left for the night.
The following day, I checked the licensing database again and found that my suspect, who had supposedly been struggling to purchase a license, had bought one at 5:30 that morning.
That afternoon I received a call from my suspect. He proceeded to admit that he was hunting the property and that he left his crossbow on the property the previous evening. I cited him with multiple citations including hunting on posted land without permission, hunting with an illegal weapon and hunting without a license. When I met up with him to issue his citations, I asked for his driver's license. I wasn't surprised at all when he handed me a photo ID and not a driver's license. I couldn’t help but chuckle at all the lies he had been feeding me.