Lawbreakers learn expensive lessons
Outdoors crime marches on, occasionally impeded by the thin green line.
• An Ohio Division of Wildlife officer assigned to Madison County assisted park personnel in investigating reports of scofflaws dumping trash from home into dumpsters at Madison Lake State Park.
• The deer hunter in Delaware County produced his license and permit, then added some loose talk. He told the wildlife officer he’d killed only one deer so far in 2016 after taking four the year before. Records showed he’d checked only two of the five, neither of them the deer taken in 2016.
• A couple of shooters chucking lead were cited in part to make clear to them that a parking lot at Wayne National Forest in Scioto County is not a designated shooting area.
• The two men told wildlife officers working the Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area in Lucas County they hadn’t even started fishing because of boat motor problems. Three undersized walleyes in an onboard cooler told a different story.
• An upset hunter in Mahoning County expressed remorse that his shot, intended for a deer, had hit the house in his line of fire. The court helped ease a guilty conscience by imposing $291 in fines and court costs as well as an additional $589 in restitution for repairs.
• The not-youthful couple fishing next to the “Youth Fishing Area” sign at Berlin Lake in Portage County agreed they weren’t accompanied by kids, whom they’d left at home. A citation appeared.
• Wildlife officers noticed a dead wood duck stuffed under a log next to a blind holding a group of early season teal hunters at Grand River Wildlife Area. One of the hunters acknowledged his mistake, referring to the killing of an out-ofseason duck rather than to the clumsy attempt at hiding it.
• Yes, the duck hunter replied to the wildlife officer checking Rush Run Lake in Preble County, there certainly was an explanation why he couldn’t produce a required Ohio Wetlands Habitat Stamp. He hadn’t bought one.
• Two netters scooped up 21 walleyes, six suckers, five carp and eight quillbacks in the no-fishing zone near the Ballville Dam in Fremont. The penalty was about $500 each. Five days in jail were suspended.
• A fisherman in Summit County was cited for litter after he acknowledged he’d thrown the remains of numerous filleted fish into North Reservoir.
• Inebriation, a jacklight, a loaded shotgun and a dark country road soon led to unintended consequences for a Knox County hunter spotted in his parked pickup by patrolling wildlife officers.
• In reply to a questioning wildlife officer, a man smoking marijuana at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area in Ottawa County said he inhaled for medicinal purposes only. Besides, he’d found the reefer on a trail. These fabrications got him kicked out of the marsh for the rest of the year.
• A Pike County man, absent tags or other evidence, told wildlife officers there was a simple explanation for the two deer hanging from a tree in his front yard. A group of hunters from North Carolina had stopped by and given him the deer.
• A hunter in Marion County bought a deer permit two hours after the buck was taken.
• The wildlife officer walked toward the river to check on a fisherman and noticed someone asleep in a vehicle parked nearby. The fisherman, it turned out, didn’t have a license. But, he added, his partner in the vehicle did have a license and was keeping watch in case a wildlife officer showed up.