The Punxsutawney Spirit

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- Man who uses drones to help hunters recover deer carcasses will appeal verdict he violated laws

LANCASTER, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvan­ia man who uses drones to try to locate wounded deer shot by hunters so they can retrieve their carcasses has been convicted of violating state hunting laws.

Joshua Wingenroth, 35, of Downingtow­n, plans to appeal the verdicts handed down Thursday by Lancaster County District Judge Raymond Sheller.

“The Legislatur­e needs to address this,” Sheller said as he delivered his verdict. “Everyone is playing catchup to science.”

Wingenroth, who openly advertised his business in area publicatio­ns, was told by state game wardens last year that such an activity was illegal, authoritie­s said. Wingeroth, though, told them his lawyer “has a different interpreta­tion” of the law.

On Dec. 6, an undercover game commission officer contacted Wingenroth and asked him to meet and help him find a deer he shot in the Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve. Wingenroth met the officer there within the hour and had the officer sign a waiver stating he wanted to recover the deer

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Wingenroth, who did not know the shot deer story was a fabricatio­n and part of a sting operation, soon launched a drone and piloted it around remotely while using a thermal camera setting to show the scenery in black and white. He soon caught view of a live deer, and turned on the camera’s infrared setting to show it on a heat map.

He later turned that setting off and activated a spotlight to view the deer normally. However, he and the officer were soon approached by a game warden who confiscate­d the drone and cited Wingenroth for two counts of using illegal electronic devices during hunting and single counts of disturbing game or wildlife and violating regulation­s on recreation­al spotlighti­ng.

Since the legal definition of hunting includes tracking, hunting and recovery, authoritie­s said Wingenroth technicall­y used the drone to “hunt” game. He was convicted on all four counts and fined $1,500.

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