Thursday, December 03, 2009
- by Philip Earhart, Bradley County TWRA Wildlife Officer
It's been a very busy Fall hunting season for Chattanooga-area wildlife law enforcement officers. Click HERE to read why.
One of the most noteworthy cases however was the apprehension of a 17-year-old boy that had killed well over the legal limit of deer... and he was caught because he posted his illegal kills on the popular MySpace.com social networking web site.
TWRA Wildlife Officers say the youngster had killed seven bucks, well in excess of the statewide bag limit of 3-antlered bucks (with the exception of “bonus” deer which may be taken on special hunts and do not count towards the bag limit).
Rather than a 4-wheel drive, ATV, night vision goggles or radios... Hamilton County Wildlife Officer Jarod Coxey tracked the violator down on the internet. He found the youngster's profile on MySpace.com. His profile contained multiple photos of deer that he had bragged about killing this season, including some very large bucks.
Of course a MySpace profile won't tell you where people live, but Officer Coxey continued to follow-up and was able to discover where the boy was hunting. On Nov. 9 Officer Coxey found the boy and his partner as they returned to the Suck Creek Boat ramp with yet another large buck in the boat. The buck was not tagged in accordance with state hunting requirements.
The investigation that night lead to the seizure of five deer heads from the juvenile’s residence, a muzzleloader, the jon boat and the freshly killed 8-point buck.
In all the juvenile has been charged with 3 counts of exceeding the bag limit on bucks, 3 counts of illegal possession of wildlife, failure to wear fluorescent orange while hunting big game, and failure to tag harvested big game.
The boat used to transport the offenders most recent illegal deer kill was seized as evidence. Click photo to enlarge.