In what ranks as one of the more efficient self-sabotages in recent Florida wildlife crime history, two cousins managed to get arrested for trespassing largely because they couldn’t resist trying to bail out the very dog they ditched while fleeing the scene.
After deciding that a fenced private cattle ranch would make an excellent uninvited playground for feral hog pursuits, Gavin Keith Dasher, 30, and his 18-year-old cousin Gracin Randell Dasher-Richardson quickly found out that the property owner disagreed. Unfortunately for our late-night hunters, so did the sheriff’s deputies who, tipped off to previous trespasses, quietly set up surveillance cameras.
The incident began in late May when the property owner reported repeated trespassing and illegal hog hunting on his land. Sumter County sheriff’s deputies responded by setting up hidden cameras on the property and finally hit a lick on the night of June 3rd. Under the cover of darkness, deputies watched as the cameras captured three men and at least one dog slipping through a metal gate onto the property.
Wasting no time, officers swiftly moved in on a Chevrolet pickup truck that was parked nearby, causing the men to flee west into the ranch. They managed to escape capture for the moment, but they left behind a tan pit bull wearing a tracking collar. The dog was taken to Sumter County Animal Services, and the truck, which was registered to a third individual, was towed.
The comedy came shortly thereafter when detectives found a Snapchat video (obviously) posted by the truck owner showing the merry band catching and releasing a hog with their dogs in tow—including the exact tan pit bull now cooling its heels at animal services.
And as if the social media video wasn’t enough to display their sheer genius, the pair went ahead and totally redeemed themselves by showing up to retrieve the abandoned dog the following day. According to the arrest report, they initially lied about their identities and claimed they didn’t know each other, despite arriving together in Dasher’s truck. The younger cousin signed paperwork claiming ownership of the tan pit bull before eventually breaking down and admitting that the group had been hog hunting on the private property.
Adding insult to the investigation, Gavin Dasher had been cited just days earlier (on May 31st) by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for hog hunting with free-running dogs in the nearby Jumper Creek Wildlife Management Area.
Both men were arrested last week and booked into the Sumter County Detention Center. They were released after posting $1,000 bond each.
