CDFW
After spending the better part of the month of August fielding complaints about lights shining through the trees, trucks running off the road and mysterious shots after dark, California Fish and Wildlife finally had enough and staked out the situation.
After committing to a series of night patrols in Angeles National Forest, wardens sat patiently in the dark waiting for the lights to come back on, until one night they did. According to a release, officials say they managed to luck out and spot a couple of vehicles working the nearby timber with spotlights. Moving in to make contact, officers were able to stop both rigs that evening and put three suspects on the ground.
The department reported that the unnamed suspects were covered in blood, both on their clothing and hands when they were apprehended. Officers found loaded guns and spotlights all within reach, along with a number of equally bloody trash bags.
Inside, officers found a pair of freshly killed headless female deer. Stuffed inside large black trash bags, officers reportedly found one fully quartered deer and another that had just been skinned out. After a bit of interrogation, the three suspects admitted that they had illegally killed the two deer and were in the middle of attempting to conceal the crime.
Following that admission, wardens grabbed the firearms, what was left of the deer and a few other key items found in their trucks as evidence before doling out what would soon become a lengthy list of charges.
That charge sheet included unlawful take of deer, hunting without licenses or tags, illegal possession of untagged meat, possession of loaded firearms in a vehicle, illegal method of take, and spotlighting.
The department noted that they were arrested on the spot and were later released on a written pinky promise to appear.
Unfortunately in the state of California, wildlife cases have the tendency to run off and die in the “promise to appear” pile. With LA County courts already buried in thefts, assaults, and murders, a pair of does in trash bags will likely come back as nothing more than a handful of ordinary citations.
