Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 28, 1993 TAG: 9311280119
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EAGLE ROCK LENGTH: Long
Something weird, though: The deer's legs are sticking straight out.
Rigor mortis? No.
Look closer: No hooves. Spikes instead.
One deer has a wire coming out of its neck. There's a battery pack filled with Energizers attached to it. And a screwdriver stuck in its neck.
These aren't real deer. They're decoys, complete with movable, radio-controlled ears and tails.
Parker is a Botetourt County sheriff's deputy and Pike is a state game sergeant. Parker, Pike and the deer are part of a sting operation the sheriff's department and state game commission are running against "road-hunters."
Road-hunters are people who cruise back roads - and sometimes subdivisions - looking for deer.
If they stop and fire at a roadside deer - or any movement they think might be a deer - they're breaking a number of laws, including shooting from a public roadway, hunting from a motor vehicle and hunting on posted property.
The officers' solution is simple: Set up the deer within sight of the road, hide in the woods with a video camera - out of the line of fire, of course - and then wait for the road-hunters to break the law.
Officers in patrol cars hiding on either side of the decoy site signal the cameraman via radio when vehicles are coming, and then pull over and arrest any violators.
Botetourt Sheriff Reed Kelly said road-hunting is one of his department's biggest problems. It's a serious danger to the community, he said.
"It's not unusual to get eight or 10 or 12 calls a day," Kelly said. "I've talked to some folks, they're scared to go outside their houses during hunting season. That's not the way things ought to be."
Some road-hunters have been known to stop in the middle of subdivisions and blast away.
"These are not bona fide sportsmen who are out here doing this," Kelly said. "As a matter of fact, the real hunters are as disgusted about this as anybody else - maybe more so."
The sting has been successful in cutting down on road-hunting this year. Since hunting season started, Sheriff's Capt. G.W. Guilliams said Friday, the department has received only six calls about road-hunting - fewer than it would have had in a single day in the past.
"Word has gotten out," Guilliams said.
But there are still road-hunters out there, in Botetourt and many other Western Virginia counties.
Some may be hunters who have been tromping through the woods all day. On their way home, they spot a deer and shoot at it.
"If it's raining, you're going to nail them every time, [because] they road-hunt," Parker said. "When it's freezing cold, they're going to road-hunt every time."
"Then you've got this other group," Game Lt. Dennis Mullins said. "They never get into the woods." They simply cruise the roads with their guns, looking for easy kills, he said.
Game wardens have been running a similar sting for about two years in several Western Virginia counties. Mullins said some might challenge the operation as entrapment, but it isn't. "The only thing we give them is the opportunity," he said. "They don't have to shoot the son of a gun."
On a recent Thursday, officers were staking out a country road when a car drove by, a man in the passenger seat and a woman driving.
According to Kelly, the man and woman came back about 20 minutes later, this time with the man behind the wheel. The man got out of the car with a gun. "He racked one in the chamber. He laid the gun on the roof and got ready to shoot, then he said, `Naw.' . . ."
Later, "he told us the deer didn't look right. He knew that if the deer wasn't right, something else wasn't right. He ran around and got in on the passenger side, and away they went."
Officers pulled them over. They couldn't charge him with illegal hunting, but Kelly said they had some other charges for him: The man was a convicted felon who was forbidden to possess a firearm. He also was a habitual offender who was forbidden to drive.
Kelly said Charles Raymond Dudley, 28, of Botetourt County, who has served time for malicious wounding and other crimes, was charged with illegal possession of a firearm and driving as a habitual offender.
"If we don't do anything else with this," Kelly said of the operation, "getting him was worth it."
The first person charged in the sting was arrested before hunting season. "He shot five times before he figured something wasn't right," Parker said. The shots didn't faze the deer, so the hunter took off.
When officers caught up with the man, he told them he couldn't figure out what was going on. He thought he might be firing too high.
On a recent overcast afternoon, Kelly, Parker, Pike, Mullins and others set the decoys along a gravel road north of Eagle Rock.
About 5 p.m., after hours of waiting, two men in a red pickup officers had spotted before drove by. Slowly. "They're not road-hunting, I ain't never seen it," Kelly said.
He got on the radio. "Bud, you've got a red pickup coming your way, real, real slow."
The truck passed by. It stopped and backed up all the way to the decoys. One of the hunters got out a rifle.
But when another vehicle came around the corner, the men in the truck drove on.
As it was getting dark, Kelly called off the day's operation.
When a deputy went into the woods to retrieve the decoys, he heard a rustling. Then he saw a shadowy figure run away.
Someone had been checking out the decoys.
by CNB